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Empowering Small Giants: Inclusive Embedded Finance for Micro-retailers

Financial inclusion is becoming more feasible for many excluded and underserved micro-retailers, thanks to the emergence of new B2B e-commerce companies that are digitizing the final stage of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) supply chain. This report outlines various business models that incorporate last-mile retailers into digital ordering platforms, offering them convenience, transparency, and a wide range of products.

The Role of Data in Inclusive Insurance

With 3.8 billion people in emerging markets lacking adequate insurance coverage, data plays a crucial role in enabling insurers to comprehend these segments' specific needs and risk profiles. This, in turn, helps develop more accurate risk assessment and pricing models for inclusive insurance offerings.

Open Finance Self-Assessment Tool and Development Roadmap

This technical guide introduces the open finance self-assessment tool and development roadmap. It provides practical tools for policymakers to use to decide whether to implement an open finance regime to advance financial inclusion and outline a development roadmap to guide the implementation process.

The Building Blocks Supporting Open Finance

This working paper introduces the concept of an inclusive data ecosystem as one where low-income people’s data trails are used to improve their financial inclusion. The paper highlights open finance as a catalyst for inclusive data ecosystems and identifies key enabling layers that drive the success of open finance and, by extension, an inclusive data ecosystem.

Leveraging Transactional Data for Micro and Small Enterprise Lending

The use of transactional data for credit underwriting can play a part in closing the estimated US$4.9 trillion global financing gap for micro and small enterprises. This case study examines the data and experience of two fintechs in India that use different sets of transactional data for credit scoring.

Building Value in Microfinance Through Digitization: A Role for Funders

This note highlights the importance of funders in supporting the digital transformation of microfinance institutions (MFIs). The focus is on business intelligence and credit renewal automation to increase the success rate of MFI digitization. Funders play a crucial role in ensuring that MFIs continue to serve the most excluded and underserved customers in the future.

Building Value in Microfinance Through Digitization: Lessons from Loan Automation Pilots

Digitization has brought both hope and frustration to the microfinance industry. To address this, we identified and tested five core principles for successful implementation. This focus note summarizes our experience, evaluates the validity of the five principles, and offers key lessons learned for other industry stakeholders to adopt and scale a similar approach.

Women Agents for Financial Inclusion: Exploring the Benefits, Constraints, and Potential Solutions

This working paper explores the benefits of having more women agents, the challenges they face, and potential solutions to promote their participation. It highlights that engaging women agents does not compromise performance and offers collaborative solutions for stakeholders to remove barriers and unlock the full potential of women in the DFS ecosystem.

A Technical Guide to Unlock Agent Networks at the Last Mile

This guide outlines five key actions for DFS providers, regulators, and funders to expand rural CICO agent networks based on CGAP's global experience. These actions include building a vision for rural expansion, optimizing investment strategies for rural agents, and capturing the potential of women agents. 

The Setup: Partnerships and Conditions for Offering Financial Services to Gig Workers

Platforms can offer financial services to underserved gig workers through digital channels, but it's essential to have the right environment for payments, regulations, and analysis. In this brief, early lessons share how institutional partnerships can lead to successful market entry.