Searching: Research & Analysis

Too Much Microcredit? A Survey of the Evidence on Over-Indebtedness

This paper is written primarily for microlenders and the institutions that fund them. We examine conceptual issues and the limited empirical evidence about over-indebtedness in microcredit markets.

Consumer Protection Laws and Regulations in Deposit and Loan Services

This paper presents the results of a survey on consumer protection regulations in 142 countries. It also compiles comprehensive information on laws and regulations relevant for consumer protection and discusses a number of challenges related to empirical analyses of financial consumer protection to enable crosscountry comparison.

Implementing the Client Protection Principles

This second edition reflects the developments in implementation and practices of the Client Protection Principles into investors’ policies and processes over the past year.

Andhra Pradesh 2010

The crisis that erupted in the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh in early October 2010 hit at the epicenter of microfinance in India and has implications there, across the country, and globally.

Protecting Branchless Banking Consumers

Transformational branchless banking heightens the consumer-related concerns of regulators and supervisors because it combines the use of agents and technology-enabled devices to serve large numbers of less educated and inexperienced customers.

Branchless Banking 2010: Who’s Served? At What Price? What’s Next?

Many in the private sector believe reaching large numbers of mass market clients is a precondition to large-scale profits, but at the same time, they are uncertain about how quickly branchless banking will gain traction with the unbanked, low-income clients who make up the mass market.

Indian Microfinance Goes Public: The SKS Initial Public Offering

On 28 July 2010 SKS, India’s largest microfinance institution (MFI) with 5.8 million clients, became the first MFI in India to float its shares through an initial public offering (IPO).

Nonbank E-Money Issuers

The success of Kenya’s M-PESA has raised the question of how most effectively to regulate nonbanks who contract directly with customers to issue electronic value against receipt of equal funds.

Financial Inclusion and Consumer Protection in Peru

CGAP partnered with the Superintendence of Banks, Insurance and AFPs of Peru in late 2008, with the purpose of enhancing the understanding of the issues and trends in consumer relations when financial services are delivered through branchless banking, particularly through agents, which are used in ever increasing scale in Peru.

Consumer Protection Regulation in Low-Access Environments

This Focus Note seeks to answer this question, drawing on consumer protection diagnostics of various types carried out by CGAP in more than a dozen countries, widespread consultations with regulators, review of research and experience in developing and developed countries, and Financial Inclusion 2009 cross-country survey findings. It cites significant examples, as well as evidence of their effectiveness (where data are available).