Searching: Research & Analysis

Community-Managed Loan Funds: Which Ones Work?

This Focus Note presents conclusions from a performance review of dozens of CMLF projects established or supported by donors and international nongovernment organizations (NGOs) over the past 15 years. It turns out that success is strongly linked to the source of funding for the loans group members receive.

Mobile Phones for Microfinance

This Brief addresses new research on the use of mobile phone banking.

Competition and Microcredit Interest Rates

In many countries, including Uganda, Bangladesh, and Bolivia, microfinance has become more competitive in recent years. Competition is generally expected to benefit consumers by offering a wider choice of appropriate products and providers, better service, and lower prices.

Mobile-Phone Banking and Low-Income Customers

This paper presents the first public findings on how low-income people view and use m-banking, using results of a survey of 515 low-income individuals in South Africa. Three hundred of those surveyed do not use m-banking, while 215 are customers of WIZZIT, a startup mobile banking provider. WIZZIT targets the 16 million South Africans who lack or have difficulty accessing formal banking services.

Working With Savings and Credit Cooperatives

This Donor Brief addresses how donors can support savings and credit cooperatives to increase access to financial services. It highlights the advantages of working with these groups as well as some of the unique challenges of doing so.

Commercial Banks and Microfinance: Evolving Models of Success

There is a vast potential market for retail financial services among low-income clients, and a growing number of commercial banks have successfully entered this market. These are the findings of recent research undertaken by CGAP, the global resource center for microfinance supported by a syndicate of 30 multilateral, bilateral, and private donors.

Crafting a Money Transfers Strategy

This Occasional Paper explores operational and strategic considerations involved in launching a money transfer product. Financial service providers that cater to the poor have been drawn to the money transfer market because it offers them the opportunity to fulfill their financial goals as well as their social objectives.

Developing Deposit Services for the Poor

These guidelines embody the working consensus of CGAP donor members on how donors can support deposit services in microfinance.

What Is a Network? The Diversity of Networks in Microfinance Today

Throughout the development of the microfinance industry, network support organizations (NSOs) have played a critical role in launching new institutions, developing standards, wholesaling funds, providing technical services, implementing knowledge management, and leading policy reform efforts.

Microinsurance: A Risk Management Strategy

Microinsurance is one of the many financial services that can help poor people protect themselves from risk. This Donor Brief provides practical dos and don'ts for donors interested in supporting this promising but still largely untested field.