Searching: Research & Analysis

Agent Networks​ at the Last Mile​: Implications for Policy Makers

Rural agent networks are critical to “last mile” financial inclusion. This reading deck for policy makers does two things: (i) it shows how rural Cash-in/Cash-out (CICO) agent network expansion is key to ensuring poor people can capture the benefits of digital financial ecosystems; and (ii) it presents a set of policies that have been effective in enabling rural CICO in a way that benefits vulnerable segments, like rural women, and that reinforces the effectiveness of social programs targeting these segments. 

Agent Networks ​at the Last Mile: Implications for Financial​ Service Providers

Rural agent networks are critical to “last mile” financial inclusion. This reading deck for Financial Services Providers (FSPs) shows: (i) how rural Cash-in/Cash-Out (CICO) agent network expansion leads to increased customer value and sustained market growth; (ii) the barriers FSPs face to expand rural CICO networks; and (iii) successful new practices carried out in different markets that address barriers and result in improved rural CICO reach and quality. 

Developing Rural Agent Networks: Emerging Guidance for Funders

Funders are uniquely positioned to help expand rural Cash-in / Cash-out (CICO) agent networks by leveraging their financial resources, technical knowledge and convening power to align the incentives and build capacity of market actors, so that they design and implement self-sustaining solutions.

Banking-as-a-Service: How it Can Catalyze Financial Inclusion

Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) is an entirely new business model that enables non-banks to offer banking services under their own brand and seamlessly embedded into their digital offering. By enabling the embedding of financial services into almost any digital context, BaaS may augur a profound evolution of the financial sector of which we are only seeing the early stages.

Banking in Layers: Five Cases to Illustrate How the Market Structure for Financial Services is Evolving

Exploring the market-level modularization of financial services through case studies featuring new models that are emerging, how they are coming about, and what they mean for the financial inclusion of low-income people in emerging markets and developing economies.

No Small Business: A Segmented Approach to Better Finance for Micro and Small Enterprises

This paper is based on primary research conducted with 383 micro and small enterrpises (MSEs) in India, Kenya, and Peru – three diverse emerging markets with a vibrant MSE finance ecosystem that includes strong incumbent providers like microfinance institutions, cooperatives, and banks, as well as innovative new providers like fintechs.

How Can Financial Services Support Platform Work? Insights from Five Emerging Markets

Based on research with platforms and their workers across five countries, this report describes the platform ecosystem in emerging markets, the experiences of workers and sellers in key sectors, and how financial services can help these workers improve their livelihoods.

Women in the Platform Economy: Emerging Insights

Millions of women work in the platform economy but often face barriers that prevent them from capturing platform-based opportunities. Learn about female workers’ experiences and how financial services can help make platforms more inclusive.

TymeBank Case Study: The Customer Impact of Inclusive Digital Banking

As a fully digital retail bank in South Africa, TymeBank has created a suite of basic products that cater to the essential financial needs of low-income rural customers.

The Great Unbundling: How Technology Is Making Financial Services Modular and What It Means for Inclusion

Financial products and processes are being unbundled, reassembled, and embedded in entirely new ways that may change the very nature of banking. What does this mean for financial inclusion?