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Fraud in Uganda: How Millions Were Lost to Internal Collusion

Kampala’s Anti-Corruption Court is at the epicenter of a major mobile money fraud. The very public nature of this case will hopefully lead to some positive outcomes among industry actors in mobile money markets around the world.

What is Digital Financial Inclusion and Why Does it Matter?

A new Brief from CGAP aims to provide national and global policy makers with a clear picture of the rapid development of digital financial services for the poor and the need for their attention and informed understanding.

USSD Access: A Gateway and Barrier to Effective Competition

To serve the unbanked, mobile financial service providers continue to rely on USSD technology to bring innovations like mobile money to the unbanked. CGAP research in Kenya and Tanzania identified several competition-relevant issues in USSD access.

What is USSD & Why Does it Matter for Mobile Financial Services?

USSD - unstructured supplementary service data - is currently the best available communications technology to deliver mobile financial services to low-income customers.

New Basel Report Documents Financial Inclusion's Mainstreaming

A new report from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision reveals the extent to which supervisory and regulatory practices are evolving in response to the emergence of new institutions, financial products and intermediation channels.

AML/CFT: Balancing Regulation with Innovation

CGAP has conducted research to better understand how processes for achieving anti-money laundering (AML) compliance affect how financial institutions can extend financial services to poor populations.

Regulation and Innovation: Hand in Hand?

The United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority just launched a new approach to dealing with the natural tension between consumer protection, innovation, and ensuring financial inclusion. Project Innovate is the UK's answer to supporting innovation where it could genuinely improve the lives of consumers.

Digital Currencies and Financial Inclusion: 5 Questions

CGAP's recent experience with BitPesa offers new perspective on some of the key concerns about Bitcoin being used in emerging markets.

Digital Currencies and Financial Inclusion: Revisited

Digital currencies are evolving fast, and so is their link with financial inclusion.

Consumer Protection at the Crux of Takaful Islamic Insurance

A growing need exists to design insurance products that meet the needs of the world's 2 billion Muslims. Takaful insurance is one possible solution, but consumer protection is a challenge.

How Responsible Is Digital Finance? 10 Global Insights

CGAP conducted a Global Pulse Survey among policy makers, financial service providers, consumer advocates and foundations to gauge perceptions of consumer risks within digital financial services.

Regulating for Inclusive Insurance Markets in Ghana

Tremendous gains have been made in Ghana's microinsurance market in recent years. Here's what the National Insurance Commission of Ghana, along with the German Development Corporation, did to help develop the market - and what challenges lie ahead.

Mobile Money Users at Center of New GSMA Code of Conduct

The GSMA launched a Code of Conduct for Mobile Money Providers, and already eleven providers have endorsed it. The code is important to ensure that the customer experience is central to the responsible development of mobile money platforms.

Five Bright Ideas for Responsible Digital Finance

Delivering financial services via digital means is growing at a blistering pace, and many are asking how can be accelerated to reach more underserved customers. At the same time, we must ensure that these services are being delivered fairly, transparently, and safely.

The Seismic Implications of Digital Financial Inclusion

Policy makers, regulators, and supervisors in countries where digital financial inclusion is expanding exponentially see the financial inclusion promise clearly. Yet, they are grappling with the fast-changing risk picture.

Policymakers Weigh In on the Graduation Approach

Through a series of video interviews with CGAP, policymakers and academics from all over the world weigh in on how the graduation approach can help the extreme poor find a pathway to a sustainable livelihood.

Can India Achieve Financial Inclusion within the Next Few Years?

The new Government of India has made financial inclusion one of the cornerstones of its policies and has set the target of every adult having a financial account by August 2015.

Is Kenya Ready for an MVNO?

Kenya recently granted MVNO licenses to several new companies, allowing them to provide mobile money services without building new cellular infrastructure. This could shake up the mobile money market in Kenya, which has been dominated by Safaricom.

New Data Shows Only 6% of India is Aware of Mobile Money

Financial inclusion in India has the mandate at the highest level of policy making, but the market has yet to respond positively to regulations that allow both public and private actors to pursue digitized payment services. Understanding demand for financial services is key to design services that reach scale.

Studying Behavior Can Inform Effective Consumer Protection Policy

Policymakers in emerging markets are only recently starting to use behavioral methods to address consumer protection challenges. There are some straightforward ways in which consumer protection policy can be more effective when it is based on insights into consumers' behavior.