Recent Blogs

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Will Brazil Go Digital?

Small and medium banks in Brazil are starting to take advantage of new regulations that make it easier to adopt fully digital business models. What impact might this development have on financial inclusion in the longer term?
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RegTech: Are Supervisors Ready for the Data Revolution?

Technology and data are considered the engine of new financial disruption. FinTech's lesser-known sibling, RegTech, refers to technology that can improve efficiency, consistency, and ease of supervisory processes. What does this revolution look like?
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Interoperability and Financial Inclusion: The Regulator’s Role

Interoperability can greatly expand the reach and usefulness of financial services for the poor. What do regulators need to know about the complex interplay between interoperability and financial inclusion?
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Leveraging Complaint Data for Greater Consumer Protection

Complaints are stories shared by unhappy customers looking to release anger, seek compensation, or improve service. For financial supervisors in many markets, complaint data collection presents a challenge. Here's how complaint reports can be improved to support effective supervisory action.
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A Public-Private Partnership to Digitize Bus Fares in Rwanda

Digitizing high-frequency or high-volume payment flows–especially to and from government–can support the growth of a national payments ecosystem and progress towards universal financial inclusion. In Rwanda, several initiatives are developing technology-enabled delivery of government services and digitization of corresponding payments.
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Digital P2G Initiatives: 5 Best Practices for Financial Inclusion

Person-to-government (P2G) payments receive considerably less attention from the global financial inclusion community than payments such as person-to-person or government-to-person. A new report aims to address this gap and to provide a roadmap for future P2G payment digitization efforts.
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Can a G2P Payment Connection Trigger Tax and Energy Reforms?

Governments are increasingly using payments and identity technology to shift cash-based transfer payments into digital channels. A new Centre for Global Development paper argues that exploiting the full range of policy levers enabled by these technologies can improve public service delivery and reduce poverty.
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3 Steps Policy-Makers Can Take Now on Digital Credit

In emerging markets, policy-makers have often struggled to keep pace with the rapid growth of digital credit. With the establishment of consumer protection authorities unlikely in the short term, here are three steps policy-makers can take now to protect consumers.
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Digital Financial Inclusion Supervision: Tanzania Pilot Program

The world of digital financial inclusion is growing quickly and outpacing capacity and resources to tackle it from a regulatory and supervisory standpoint. In response, CGAP and Toronto Centre piloted the first Digital Financial Inclusion Supervision training program in Tanzania.
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Six Tips for Policy on Disruptive Digital Financial Inclusion

Digital technologies are changing the financial inclusion landscape worldwide by revolutionizing access to finance, connecting hundreds of millions to formal financial services for the first time. Financial market regulators, supervisors and overseers are racing to keep pace with these developments.
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Making the Case for Privacy for the Poor

Poor people in emerging economies are rightfully concerned about whether their families are safe, sheltered and adequately nourished. Where does privacy fit into that mix?
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503.2 Million Reasons to Tackle Data Protection Now

Conducting financial affairs digitally does not come without risks, evidenced by recent privacy breaches around the world. CGAP is exploring relevant issues in data protection, along with potential solutions that could build trust and improve value for customers, providers and societies.
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Advancing Financial Inclusion Through P2G Payment Digitization

Karandaaz Pakistan recently undertook the first-ever systematic review of digital person-to-government (P2G) payment efforts from across the globe. What did they find, and what are the implications for future P2G digitization efforts?
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Time to Take Data Privacy Concerns Seriously in Digital Lending

Digital credit is on the rise in Kenya. While digital lenders are expanding access to credit for many Kenyans, they are operating outside regulation by any financial sector authority–and some key consumer protection concerns have started to emerge.
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Protecting Digital Financial Data: What Standard-Setters Can Do

A 2016 GPFI white paper highlighted privacy and data security risks in digital financial services, asking international financial Standard-Setting Bodies (SSBs) to pay attention. Why are they concerned, and what steps can SSBs take to improve data security?
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Will Crowdfunding Help Financial Inclusion of Unserved Crowds?

“Crowdfunding” is market-based financing where small amounts of funds are raised from large numbers of individual sources. While crowdfunding has the potential to become the next big thing for financial inclusion, risks for both borrowers and lenders need to be better understood.
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A Better System for Internal Complaint Handling

As with any product, there are times when financial services do not work as customers expected they would. How can financial service providers improve their internal complaint handling systems?
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Deepening Insights on Financial Exclusion Risks

Since 2011, financial Standard-Setting Bodies (SSBs) have taken fundamental steps on financial inclusion. However, a new GPFI White Paper observes that little progress has been made on understanding financial exclusion risks. What are these risks, and what can be done to address them?
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Risk-Based Supervision in the Digital Financial Inclusion Era

Lack of supervisory capacity is one of the key challenges facing financial sector supervisors in emerging markets. A risk-based approach to supervision helps to strategically allocate scarce resources and to prioritize interventions according to identified risks.
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Global SSBs Chart New Path in Digital Financial Inclusion

Global standard-setting bodies (SSBs) are increasingly recognizing the significant implications of developments in digital financial services. A new white paper from The Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) offers a roadmap through some of the most critical issues.