Blog

How Should Donors Support Microfinance in Pakistan Post-Flood?

The floods have hit Pakistan hard. Over 2 million homes have been damaged or destroyed, and $1 billion is at risk of being lost by the financial sector in the region most affected.

Social Performance and Financial Performance: Who’s Pulling Who?

The Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) has released a new brief, Microfinance Synergies and Trade-Offs: Social versus Financial Performance Outcomes in 2008.

Enabling International Remittance Services in Georgia

International remittances play an important role in the lives of people across the world, but in Georgia they are of major economic importance, accounting for 9% of the country’s GDP.

Financial Access 2010 Launch

Financial Access 2010 is based on data from financial regulators in 142 countries and provides the first ever framework for global comparisons on financial inclusion.

Pakistan Floods —Branchless Banking Responds

CGAP’s partner in Pakistan, Tameer Microfinance Bank, and their parent company, Telenor Pakistan, have made it possible for people in Pakistan who may not have internet access to make donations to relief organizations using their EasyPaisa mobile banking platform and have removed the usual transfer fees.

Can Mobile Money Be Profitable? We Asked Mobile Money Managers

We surveyed over 20 senior managers from some of the major mobile network operators in over 15 markets. 64 percent of the respondents launched mobile money in the past year. 70 percent claim to already reach over half-a-million customers each with transfers or bill payments or both.

Priorities for Branchless Banking (Part 3 of 3)

Branchless banking is best conceived of as the construction of a network utility. In the third of three blog posts we’ve featured this week, Ignacio emphasizes the applications of this utility for poorer customers.

Priorities for Branchless Banking (Part 2 of 3)

In order for branchless banking to prove to be transformational, it needs to demonstrate not only that it can be scalable (priority #1), but also that it can work for a range of providers and for a range of customer segments – including the poor. These are the two next priorities for branchless banking.

Priorities for Branchless Banking (Part 1 of 3)

It is easy to foresee that in the future normal neighborhood stores will be used by poor people everywhere to conduct basic financial transactions, that technology based on real-time communications will be used to make those transactions reliable and secure, and further that providers will increasingly rely on people’s own mobile phones rather than on deploying cards and dedicated point of sale terminals.

Microfinance & M-banking Virtual Conference Recap

Thank you to everyone who participated in CGAP’s virtual conference over the past two days on the topic of microfinance and mobile banking, coinciding with the release of our latest Focus Note Microfinance and Mobile Banking: The Story So Far.

Are Banks the Bad Guys in the Mobile Money Innovation Debate?

Maybe the next wave of innovation will still be related to the channel, but just a different channel. Is the hype around mobile technology really panning out?

How Can Regulators Protect Funds Held by Mobile Money Providers?

The success of mobile money services such as M-PESA has raised the question of how to regulate nonbanks—most notably mobile network operators, which are often well-placed to reach customers with affordable financial services due to their existing customer base, marketing capabilities, network of agents, physical distribution infrastructure, and experience with high-volume, low-value transactions.

What Does Microborrower Behavior Tell Us About Impact?

Given how much we still don’t know about what kind of impact all this investment is producing, further research makes pretty good sense.

Is There an App to Track M-PESA’s Growth?

Though many say it will be years (or never) by the time near-field communication (NFC) technology gets into the hands of the mass market customer, at least one very notable handset maker appears to be making moves towards integrating NFC into its future products.

Mobile Money’s Innovation Crisis

MNOs and device manufactures have been excellent at innovation and product design. Oftentimes taking the lead from poor customers, they are quick to spot new trends and to harness them into new products and services.

SKS IPO Success and Excess

By market standards, the SKS IPO is a great success. Institutional investors have over-subscribed their allocations by 13 times, and the company’s valuation of USD 1.5 billion came in at the top end of the offer band price.

How Can Microfinance Take Advantage of Mobile Banking?

A wide gulf separates those institutions that are in countries with existing m-banking services and those that are not.

Learn How M-PESA Reached 10 Million Kenyans in 3 Years

We write a lot about M-PESA. That’s because it is the most successful mobile money service launched (so far).

Join CGAP on Aug. 2 for a World-Class Panel on Mobile Money

On Monday, Aug. 2 CGAP’s own Kabir Kumar will take the stage at “Tech@State: Mobile Money,” an event hosted by the U.S. State Department in Washington with an exciting line-up of mobile money practitioners from around the globe.

Change vs. Impact

How can changes in the lives of microfinance clients best be measured? How does that differ from tracking impact?