Blog

M-Insurance: Ensuring Take-off While Doing No Harm

Mobile network operators (MNOs) have recently begun offering insurance to their clients known as ‘m-insurance’, which offers a significant opportunity to scale-up access to insurance.

Does Market Saturation Increase the Risk of Over-indebtedness?

Over-indebtedness is commonly linked to overly penetrated markets, but determining whether market saturation drives over-indebtedness is not so simple.

MSMEs: Big Opportunity In Small Lending

Access to finance is the most significant obstacle to business growth globally (16.2%) and experts estimate that there are 310 to 380 million enterprises that need more credit but can’t access it, with collective needs totaling $2.1 to $2.5 trillion.

Mobile Life Insurance: Innovations From Pakistan

The commercial viability of businesses that provide life insurance to the poor is difficult to predict. The strong penetration of mobile phones in Pakistan provides a cost-effective method of acquiring customers that holds promise for the industry.

Branchless Banking in Pakistan: the Glass Half and Full View

Branchless banking is flourishing in Pakistan, which is on track to become the most competitive mobile money market in the world.

Learning How To Move A Microinsurance Market From Zambia

Can a market development approach that takes a holistic view, tackling problems of demand and supply, policy and regulation be successful in developing a microinsurance market? Based on our experience in Zambia, we would argue that the answer is yes.

Standing Firm With Clients When Catastrophe Hits

In the aftermath of hurricane Sandy, Fonkoze—Haiti’s largest MFI and the only one that offers catastrophe microinsurance to its 65,000 clients—faced more than 17,000 claims to review.

Open Sourcing Product Innovation

In our work through applied product innovation, we are learning that being open about the products that didn’t work can be an important mandate for all providers—as what is discarded by some can be a treasure for others.

Transparency In SME Investments: We’re Not There Yet

Despite evidence of financial and impact tracking, most DFIs do not disclose data on financial performance. Reporting on social impact is even harder to obtain. We are a long way from full transparency.

Landscaping Microinsurance In Africa And Latin America

Two recent landscape studies provide much needed data to assist a variety of stakeholders – including insurers, distribution channels, policy-makers, donors and consultants – to understand the microinsurance markets more effectively, leading to better development and expansion of microinsurance.

Data: Enabling Country-led Actions to Address Financial Inclusion

Following the endorsement of the G20 Basic Set of Financial Inclusion Indicators, the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion's Data and Measurement Sub-Group, in collaboration with partners, has developed an online data portal.

Islamic Microfinance And Clients: See What I Do, Not What I Say

Muslim microfinance clients often insist on Sharia-compliant products. However, when offered, many clients try the products and then go back to conventional products. Others shun the Islamic offerings altogether. Why this disconnect between what people say and what they do?

Experiencing Human-Centered Design For The Base Of The Pyramid

Recently CGAP has worked in three countries with a variety of partners to generate demand-side insights and design innovative products that work better for low-income households, using what has come to be known as “human-centered design."

Does “Effective Interoperability” Equal Financial Inclusion?

The measurement of “effective interoperability,” depends on the ultimate policy goal, which could be financial inclusion. In the case of Pakistan, “effective interconnection” could facilitate a 100 million Pakistanis with electronic financial access within eight years.

Why People Don’t Buy Microinsurance

Several factors influence a household's decision to buy microinsurance. A review of over 30 studies shows that trust and liquidity constraints are amongst the most important determinants while understanding demand of microinsurance products.

Over-indebtedness: Striking the Right Policy Balance

Debt stress is an inherent phase in the evolution of credit markets and in credit cycles, but it is also a significant source of instability.

New Rwanda Diaries Ask, “Can We Build A Better Goat?”

Portfolios of Rwanda is a new report that analyzes the daily cash flows of Rwandan households to better understand their financial needs. In many cases, the challenge is no longer an issue of access to financial services, but one of relevant products.

Building Resilience through Access to Insurance

There is increasing recognition that poor people need access to a suite of varied financial services. In this context, there is increasing talk about insurance as an important financial service to help people mitigate, manage risks and protect assets.

Getting Better Insights To Design Better Financial Products

Today, CGAP is releasing a synthesis deck which highlights our experiences in product innovation and helps providers understand how they can use customer-centric approaches to improve their offerings.

Mobile Payment Systems:What Can India Adopt From Kenya’s Success?

Despite some initiatives in India, the adoption of mobile payment technology, especially among the low-income population, has been cautious. What can India learn about mobile money services in Kenya?