Recent Blogs
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The Evolving Nature and Scale of Consumer Risks in Digital Finance
New consumer risks in digital finance are emerging, especially around data misuse and fraud. Meanwhile, familiar risks like data breaches are speeding up, not slowing down. New approaches to consumer protection are needed.Blog
The Menace of COVID-19 for Microfinance
FINCA Impact Finance President and CEO Andrée Simon explains what’s needed for the most vulnerable microfinance institutions and their customers to overcome the pandemic.Blog
Why Do CICO Agent Networks Matter and How Do We Promote Them?
More than a decade since the rise of digital finance, cash remains popular and the ability for people to move cash in and out of digital systems is still vital to financial inclusion. How can agent networks be expanded to fill this need?Blog
Is It Possible to Estimate Financial Stress Before It Harms Borrowers?
A tool piloted by CGAP and 4G Capital reliably measures changes in borrower behavior to detect financial stress. If stress indicators are found to predict future repayment, the tool could also serve as an early warning system for issues like default.Blog
Bangladesh’s COVID-19 Response Is Taking Digital Finance to New Levels
Bangladesh’s policies in response to COVID-19 have enabled more low-income people to benefit from digital financial services.Blog
Pitfalls in MFI Digitization: Not Listening to the Customer
Customer centricity is key to ensuring a microfinance institution's digital solutions actually meet customer needs -- and there's ample evidence it's good for business. Yet many microfinance institutions overlook this critical aspect of digitization.Blog
COVID-19 and Microfinance: What the Data Says About Risk in the Sector
What impact has COVID-19 had on microfinance so far? What are likely future scenarios? Learn more in this blog post, which summarizes key findings from CGAP and MFR's research that began in June 2020.Blog
Pitfalls in MFI Digitization: Getting the Business Case Right
Kicking off a new series on how microfinance institutions can avoid common mistakes when digitizing, this post highlights the need to start with a clear business case and presents six proven ways digitization has benefited microfinance institutions.Blog
Analyzing Social Media to Spot Digital Consumer Credit Risks in India
Last year, news reports emerged of aggressive debt collection amid India's digital credit boom. New research shows that early warning signs on social media preceded the reports, highlighting the value of social media for consumer protection.Blog
Are Funders up to the Challenge of Building Rural Agent Networks?
Agent networks are crucial for advancing financial inclusion and other development goals. Here are six ways funders can encourage the expansion of agent networks in rural areas home to many of the world's low-income populations.Blog
Forging Her Own Path: Women and Informal Online Commerce
A growing number of financially excluded women are running businesses over social media platforms to improve their lives. What What does this mean for women's financial inclusion?Blog
5 Ways Gender Lens Investors Can Deepen Impact on Financial Inclusion
Gender lens investing is becoming a more popular way to invest in financial inclusion. Here are five ways funders can set themselves up for success and use this approach for greater impact.Blog
Cool in Crisis: How Bangladeshi MFIs Stay Resilient
Through flood, drought and famine, Bangladesh's microfinance industry has survived over the decades and continued to serve low-income customers in times of crisis. What has made Bangladeshi microfinance institutions so resilient?Blog
Has Microcredit Empowered Women in Bangladesh? Yes, But Not by Itself
Microfinance has contributed to women’s empowerment, but to understand the impact you have to look beyond where many observers have assumed they would find it.Blog
How Bangladesh Democratized Its Savings Culture
Bangladesh may be best known within financial inclusion circles as the birthplace of modern microcredit. But it has also democratized savings by developing formal savings instruments that are used today by many of the country’s poorest households.Blog
Leveraging Gender Lens Investments for Women’s Financial Needs
Gender lens investing is gaining momentum among a wide range of investors as an approach to women's empowerment. Here are three ways this approach could accelerate women's financial inclusion.Blog
Bangladesh’s 50 Years: Taking the Long View of Financial Inclusion
Bangladesh turned 50 this year. What does the country's decades-long journey with financial inclusion reveal about how financial inclusion connects to wider development? This post kicks off a new series exploring this question.Blog
Digital Consumer Credit in India – Time to Take a Closer Look
As media reports of abusive lending practices emerge amid India’s digital consumer credit boom, the country can steer digital credit in a more promising direction by ramping up its efforts to listen to consumers and taking the necessary actions.Blog
Small but Mighty: CGAP and the Future of Financial Inclusion
In her final leadership essay as CGAP’s CEO, Greta Bull shares her perspective on the impact COVID-19 has had on global development and some lessons she’s learned about financial inclusion.Blog