Kate McKee

Kate McKee formerly led CGAP’s initiative on responsible digital finance, which seeks to ensure transparency and safety for customers through forward-thinking industry standards and proportional regulation. She also led policy and advisory work on consumer protection, as well as Graduating the Poor into Sustainable Livelihoods initiative, which promotes scaling up of a holistic model that has achieved rigorously-documented gains in income, consumption, assets, and other aspects of well-being for participating extreme poor households in multiple countries around the world.

Following assignments with the Ford Foundation in West Africa and New York, Kate worked for 12 years in delivery of innovative financial services in the United States, including leading the team that started up a new federal initiative to finance Community Development Financial Institutions. She then headed up the Microenterprise Development office at the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Kate is a development economist (MPIA Princeton University). 

By Kate McKee

Blog

Six To-Dos Now for Responsible Investors

At the mid-year Social Investor Roundtable, the Sangam Group (CEOs of the 10 largest MIVs) and annual Development Finance Institutions (DFI) consultation on responsible finance agreed on a “to-do” list of six concrete actions for investors.
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Financial Crime: Risks For New Formal Finance Customers

There are a range of financial crimes that may occur in the financial inclusion space. This post highlights the most relevant risk elements from a financial inclusion perspective.
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What If Poor People Do Care about Privacy of Their Financial Data

Do base-of-pyramid consumers value privacy of their financial data? How might these concerns impact uptake for new financial services and delivery channels? Share your insight from the field in the comments section.
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Scammed: Pyramids and the Financial Inclusion Agenda

Large-scale financial crimes such as pyramid and ponzi schemes that promise high returns on dubious investments are always big news. Clearly they can lead to devastating losses for consumers, the great majority of whom typically lose all the money they invest. This in turn can threaten gains in financial inclusion by eroding potential new consumers’ confidence in the formal financial system.
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Who Is in Charge of MFIs?

Efforts to improve MFI governance are central to making our industry’s responsible finance movement robust in its practices – not just high-minded principles — and ensuring that it offers meaningful benefits to clients.