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Is Digital Banking Better Banking for the Bottom of the Pyramid?

Digital banks are emerging in many developing countries. Can they do a better job than traditional banks of providing low-income customers with useful financial services?

Is Banking Becoming Modular? A Glimpse into the Future of Finance

There's a growing sense in developed markets that the next few years will see profound change in financial services. What are these changes? And what are the implications for financial inclusion?

Great Expectations: Fintech and the Poor

Fintech has attracted off-the-charts hype in the development community. But lost in all the excitement is a cool-headed assessment of what these shiny new things are really delivering for poor people. Greta Bull, in the first in a series of CGAP leadership essays, takes stock.

Building Open APIs for Digital Finance? Think Sprints, Not Marathon

Digital financial services provides are finding that traditional software development approaches are not ideal for opening APIs. Here’s a better approach.

Let’s Free Up Cash Networks by Rethinking Agent Regulations

Regulations often give big financial institutions near total control over mobile money cash-in/cash-out networks. Changing the rules would enable small entrepreneurs to play a bigger role in building last-mile cash networks.

It’s Time to Deregulate Agent Cash In/Cash Out

Agent regulations often treat agents like extensions of bank branches. But the reality is that many agents conduct a far more limited range of financial activities and should be regulated differently.

MTN Uganda Opens Up Mobile Money APIs

Uganda's largest telco just opened APIs that enable local developers to build apps that leverage its popular mobile money platform. Here are some lessons learned from MTN Uganda's open APIs journey so far.

What APIs Are Digital Financial Services Providers Opening?

What types of APIs are digital financial service providers opening in developing countries? CGAP has been keeping track and spotting trends.

Digital Credit Helping to Put Kids in Classrooms in Cote d'Ivoire

By partnering with farmers’ cooperatives to offer an innovative digital credit product, Advans is seeing high repayment rates and having an impact on school attendance in rural Cote d'Ivoire.

Growth vs. Sustainability: Credit Risk in PAYGo Solar

Rapid customer growth in PAYGo solar can come with a cost: too many customers that don’t repay. To better understand the realities and challenges of running a PAYGo credit operation, we spoke with heads of credit and risk at PAYGo solar companies, equity investors and creditors.

Where Do We PAYGo from Here? PAYGo Beyond Solar

Pay-as-you-go financing is increasing poor people’s access to life-changing assets beyond home solar systems, from solar-powered water pumps to smartphones.

Using a Gamified Solution to Incentivize Mobile Money Agents

Empowering mobile money agents to provide exceptional customer service can be challenging. In Indonesia, BTPN has an innovative solution that uses gamification.

Super Platforms: Connecting Farmers to Markets in Africa

In Africa, super platforms aren't just connecting customers and merchants. They're also connecting farmers to markets.

Client Registration: The Blind Spot in Agricultural Insurance

This agricultural insurance provider tripled its product registration rates in rural Nigeria by improving its registration process.

How Bangladesh Digitized Education Aid for 10 Million Families

In just months, Bangladesh digitized financial aid payments for education to millions of families. What can other countries learn from this rapid transition to digital payments?

A Digital Platform to Manage Out-of-Pocket Health Care Expenses

The M-TIBA mobile health wallet combines savings, remittances and other digital financial services to help low-income customers cover health care expenses.

China's Super Platforms: The Impact Question

What impact are super platforms having on low-income customers and small businesses? CGAP and Mastercard Foundation traveled to China to see firsthand.

Building Rural Digital Ecosystems, One Small Payment at a Time

New research shows that digitizing everyday payments as person-to-person transfers can be a sustainable way for providers to reach customers in rural areas.

What Can Traditional Giving Teach Digital Fundraising Platforms?

What can today’s digital fundraising platforms learn from long-held traditions of giving? We spoke with givers in Kenya to find out.

Off-Grid Solar Company Helping Customers Pay School Fees

In Africa, some of the most innovative ideas in education financing are coming from an unlikely source - an off-grid solar company.