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Savers Deserve More Attention and Protection

Access to finance in the West African Economic Monetary Union and Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa grew significantly from 2001 to 2011. However, more attention must be paid to savings and savers.

Do Mobile Money Clients Need More Protection?

On this year’s World Consumer Rights Day, Consumers International has chosen a timely target: mobile phones. We take a look at some critical questions that must be asked to ensure the poor are being adequately protected.

E-Payments in Low-Income Settings: Cutting-Edge or High Risk?

Seen as having great potential for advancing the effectiveness of social and foreign assistance, e-payments can increase efficiency in a variety of ways. Four case studies take a closer look at programs in Haiti, Kenya, The Philippines and Uganda.

La Poste Tunisienne: A Powerful Tool for Financial Inclusion

There are six million postal financial accounts in Tunisia, impressive for a population of 11 million. In fact, La Poste is the best known and first cited financial institution in Tunisia and shows great promise for financial inclusion.

Graduation Programs as Part of Targeted Social Policy

After more than 15 years, conditional cash transfer programs have become the backbone of targeted social policies in Latin America. But we must create programs that maintain progress while continuing to move people out of poverty and into sustainable livelihoods.

How the Graduation Approach Fits Into Social Protection Programs

This past decade has seen an exponential growth in social protection programs. When appropriately designed and implemented, these programs tackle poverty and vulnerability and promote positive developmental outcomes.

Prioritizing Complaints Handling with Third Party Ombudsmen

More and more countries are realizing the importance of establishing proper mechanisms for handling complaints within financial institutions and establishing proper external or third party recourse systems through ombudsman schemes.

Nicaragua’s System for Resolving Financial Complaints

Nicaragua has made significant strides in consumer protection and financial inclusion since 2005, especially regarding its formalized complaints channel for credit card disputes.

Complaints Handling: A Secret Ingredient to Financial Inclusion

When things go wrong with consumers' financial services, having a good system for addressing complaints and resolving problems can go a long way towards building long-lasting uptake and usage of financial products.

Prove It: Measuring Gender Performance in Microfinance

The Gender Performance Initiative (GPI) evaluates how effectively MFIs are serving women to ultimately build the business case that women are valuable customers and employees, as well as catalysts for social and economic change.

Financial Inclusion, Stability, Integrity, and Consumer Protection

An inclusive financial system that reaches all citizens will have a more stable retail deposit base, which should increase systematic stability.

Preventing Financial Marginalization of Consumers in the US

The recent recession in the United States has exposed and aggravated the extent to which many families struggle to just keep up financially. This financial marginalization impairs their capacity to participate in the larger economy.

Introducing MIMOSA: Microfinance Market Capacity Measurement Tool

The MIMOSA is a knowledge tool to estimate credit penetration in markets across the world.

Measuring Financial Sales Staff Behavior: Evidence from Mexico

A recently completed study in Mexico sought to determine how the perceptions sales staff have of different types of consumers and their knowledge impacted the quality and quantity of information consumers receive when shopping for an individual credit or savings product.

Recognizing Two Approaches to Balancing Returns in Microfinance

If microfinance is to rely on impact investors to fund its future growth, it's crucial that it build credibility with both financial-first and below-market investors. Without clearer and more accurate investment propositions, microfinance could progressively alienate all its investors.

Defaults Versus Over-indebtedness in Morocco

In Morocco, microcredit borrowers don't default only when they are unable to repay loans. Individual or collective defaults also result when credit providers lose legitimacy and borrowers are not willing to repay.

Loan Defaults Versus Over-indebtedness in Rural Tamil Nadu

As research in Tamil Nadu shows, defaulting on microloans might not always be due to over-indebtedness.

Building An Enabling and Protective Policy Environment

The blog post describes CGAP's approach to building an enabling and protective policy environment for financial inclusion.

Consumer Lending and Financial Inclusion in Latin America

Regulators in Latin America are starting to build regional consensus and sharing successful policies across markets on consumer lending.

Gabriel Davel Proposes Tests for Credit Bubbles

Davel helped create South Africa’s National Credit Regulator, one of the world's most capable financial consumer protection agencies. In a new Focus Note, Davel draws on a number of debt crises and distills his own experience into practical guidance.