Research & Analysis

Microcredit Interest Rates and Their Determinants: 2004–2011

This paper provides updated information on microcredit market developments for 2004 through 2011.

Financial Access 2012

The annual Financial Access report aspires to include data on an increasing number of financial service providers. Financial Access 2012 builds on the work done in Financial Access 2009 and Financial Access 2010 to provide new data on financial access.

MIF SmartAid Report 2013

MIF received 85 out of 100 points, meaning that overall it has “very good” systems in place to support financial inclusion.

Where Do Impact Investing and Microfinance Meet?

This Brief presents the results of CGAP research on impact investing and how it relates to the MSME investment space.

Interoperability in Electronic Payments: Lessons and Opportunities

This report looks at the question of interoperability in payments systems in general, and attempts to derive reasons for the successes and failures of interoperability in the past.

Advancing Financial Inclusion through Use of Market Archetypes

The evolution of money from physical cash to digital form is redefining financial services as an information business. This, in turn, is generating optimism around the long-term prospect of cashless or “cash-lite” societies.

Segmentation of Smallholder Households

This paper examines the challenge of providing financial services that support the multiple goals of rural households.

How Can Institutions Listen and Learn from their Clients?

Exploring Alternative API Product Concepts

Trends in Sharia-Compliant Financial Inclusion

With an estimated 650 million Muslims living on less than $2 a day, finding sustainable Islamic models could help provide financial access to millions of Muslim poor who strive to avoid financial products that do not comply with Sharia.