Blog

Variations on a Theme: Business Models in Branchless Banking

We’ve done a lot of thinking at CGAP about the different business models and partnerships that exist in branchless banking. What I find interesting is that rarely do you find two models that look exactly alike. Once you begin to really dig beneath the surface, you realize that even among those businesses that we might simplistically call “telco-led” or “bank-led”, there are significant differences.

Competition Gets a Pat on the Back

People who favor a commercial approach to microfinance and people who oppose interest rate caps have argued for years that competition would bring meaningful reductions in microcredit interest rates. Others have been skeptical about this prediction.

Financially Inclusive Ecosystems: The Roles of Government Today

Different products present different risks and delivery challenges, and it is unlikely that a single class of service providers will effectively provide all the products poor people need.

Cash Really Is King

Cash is easy.” “Cash is what I know most.” “There are no charges when I use cash.”

Hopes for More Financial Inclusion in the Arab World

For the Arab World, 2011 was historic. The year brought much hope and a sense of opportunity as Arabs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Gulf saw the possibility of a future without dictatorship, corruption and hypocrisy – the reasons underlying the poverty, unemployment, and political grievances which sparked the Arab Spring.

Can Self-Regulation Work to Protect Clients?

But what does this movement towards codes of conduct amongst microfinance associations mean from the policy perspective? Policymakers (and the rest of us) cannot count on the microfinance industry to handle client protection all on its own.

Customer Level Interoperability: A Story of Two Mobile Handsets

In our work on interoperability, we find that there are some questions that we are unable to adequately address at the platform and agent levels alone. For instance, the opening of USSD gateways by mobile operators may allow customers of one operator to access services of another operator without either platform interconnection or agent sharing.

Changing the World with 140 Characters

With more than 100 million active users of Twitter and over 800 million Facebook members around the world today, social media offer opportunities to reach new audiences, and engage in new ways.

Reflections on 2011 from the Chair of CGAPs Board

Highlighting significant progress, or at least some encouraging signs that reaffirm the importance of the collective effort to advance financial services for the poor, in which CGAP plays an important role as a global public good.

Banking Services Transforming A Town in the Amazon

What do the inhabitants of this small town of 15,000 people (30,000 including surrounding communities) in the Amazon need banking services for?

The Year of the Dragon: More Innovation for Financial Inclusion?

In spite of ongoing reforms, governments exert high levels of controls on the financial sector in East Asia.

Financial Inclusion Issues to Watch in East Africa, 2012

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) continues to be a region plagued with challenges but ripe with opportunities in microfinance.

Financial Services for the Poor: Priorities for 2012

An estimated 2.7 billion working-age adults globally at the base of the economic pyramid have no access to formal financial services and, instead, have to rely on informal financial mechanisms that are typically incomplete, less reliable, and considerably more expensive.

Branchless Banking Interoperability and Agent Exclusivity

This is the third post in our series on interoperability and related issues in branchless banking and mobile money. Read the first post that presented the overall framework for the discussion and the second post that looked at the interconnection of mobile money platforms. Today, we discuss interoperability at the agent level as it relates to agent exclusivity. We include agent exclusivity in the topic of interoperability because it raises many of the same issues as platform interoperability.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Predictions for 2012

The year 2011 was not particularly easy for microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA). What are some of the issues that will be key for the ECA microfinance sector in 2012?

Can Mobile Money Transform a Country?

Over the past week, the world has been commemorating the 2nd anniversary of the Haiti earthquake. Today and tomorrow we will have two guest blog posts on the mobile money sector that has emerged over the last two years in Haiti. Today’s post is written by two colleagues at USAID.

Three Wishes for Latin America in 2012

In 2012 with the focus shifting away from “hot-spots” and yes/no debates on microfinance, and hopefully towards greater product diversity and complete financial ecosystems, Latin America is poised to assume a leadership role.

The Next Step for Mobile Money Providers: Moving Toward Sustainability

To commemorate the 2nd anniversary of the Haitian earthquake, we are running a few blogs on the mobile money industry that has developed in Haiti over the past two years. The consulting firm Dalberg has recently completed three pieces of research on the Haitian market as part of Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI).

Platform-level Interconnection in Branchless Banking

Platform-level interconnection is what most people have in mind when they think of interoperability in branchless banking. When we speak of interoperable platforms, we are referring to platforms that permit the transfer of funds from one mobile account to the mobile account of another service provider.

A LiFi World

A LiFi world is therefore one in which every person has an electronic store of value which they can easily use to make and receive payments in real time. Just like in places with reliable on-grid electricity, we can turn on a light on-demand, knowing that it will work and that the cost of flicking the switch will be small in relation to the benefits.