Digital lenders can help unlock full financial inclusion: digital financial services aren’t just for fintechs

Amy Stewart
12 Dec 2018

By Amy Stewart An agent for Accion Microfinance Bank in Nigeria assists a customer.  The market for lending is changing across the globe. A new category of digital lenders has emerged that uses digitized customer data, lower-cost digital channels, and advances in machine learning and analytics to offer better products to more clients in faster, more cost-efficient and engaging ways. The market opportunity is significant: the total transaction value is […]

The Digital Transformation: Four Opportunities and Three Threats for Traditional Financial Institutions

Graham Wright
10 Dec 2018

By GRAHAM WRIGHT In 2010, Equity Bank called in MicroSave to help with their digital transformation. Today more than 97 percent of Equity Bank’s transactions in Kenya are conducted outside their branch network, and more than 70 percent are self-initiated by their clients on mobile phones. Can you imagine what that does to their cost structures? The International Finance Corporation (IFC) calculates that it reduces the annual cost to serve a customer by […]

For Women in India, Small Loans Have a Big Impact

13 Nov 2018

Photos by Dominic Chavez/IFC HARHUA, India—In this sleepy village on the outskirts of the ancient city of Varanasi, Irawati Devi stands proudly under the bael tree that shades her home. Goats scour the ground around her mint-green food carts, searching for traces of the fried noodles and samosas she sells. “When we first moved to Harhua,” Irawati, 58, recalls, “we wrapped saris around bamboo poles until we could afford to […]

4 REGULATORY ENABLERS FOR DIGITAL FINANCE: A GENDER PERSPECTIVE

Yasmin Bin-Humam, Juan Carlos Izaguirre, Emilio Hernandez (CGAP)
12 Nov 2018

By Yasmin Bin-Humam, Juan Carlos Izaguirre, Emilio Hernandez (CGAP) Digital financial services (DFS) have played a major role in increasing people’s access to financial accounts globally, but access to these services has been uneven for men and women. According to Findex, between 2014 and 2017 women’s mobile money account ownership rates jumped from 8 to 15 percent in low-income countries. Yet men’s ownership grew even more, from 12 to 21 […]

THE PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF GENDER-LENSED DATA ANALYTICS FOR FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS

Fabian Reitzug
05 Nov 2018

By Fabian Reitzug, International Finance Corporation (IFC)-Mastercard Foundation Partnership for Financial Inclusion. Responsible Finance Forum Blog October 2018. Ms. Muyenga owns two grocery stalls and a catering business in a Zambian Copper belt town. She earns too little to open a bank account, but discovered that with digital financial services, she could save money on her phone. This enabled her to invest and successfully grow her fritter business.[1] The success […]

ACCELERATING THE SDGs | HOW DIGITAL FINANCE CAN IGNITE FASTER PROGRESS TOWARD THE GLOBAL GOALS

Ruth Goodwin-Groen
15 Oct 2018

By Ruth Goodwin-Groen, Managing Director, BTCA As world leaders met at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, many discussions focused on how to ignite greater progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Increasingly, digital financial inclusion is emerging as a key answer. Today, two in three adults worldwide, more than ever before, have access to mobile money, formal accounts, electronic payments and fintech apps, making it easier to reach those who had […]

GEO-VISUALIZING MARKET DATA TO ROLL-OUT AGENCY BANKING NETWORK

Shafique Jamal
10 Oct 2018

By Shafique Jamal, IFC-Mastercard Foundation Partnership for Financial Inclusion Introduction In Ghana, Digital Financial Services (DFS) providers are increasing financial inclusion. The Partnership for Financial Inclusion is working with one bank, for example, to expanding its presence geographically, to better reach the unbanked and under-banked. To this end, carefully planning where to recruit and place agents in various parts of the country.  The bank is specifically targeting areas with low […]

HOW CAN GENDER LENSED DATA ANALYTICS BE USED TO CLOSE THE FINANCIAL INCLUSION GAP?

Richard Chamboko
31 Aug 2018

By Richard Chamboko, IFC-Mastercard Foundation Partnership for Financial Inclusion, for the Responsible Finance Forum Blog August 2018  Increasingly, evidence is showing that the use for Digital Financial Services (DFS) especially among women is bearing massive benefits. A recent study conducted in Kenya demonstrated that access to mobile money services helped women-headed households to reduce extreme poverty and provided opportunities to change livelihoods from farming to other retails services (Suri and […]

JUNTOS: ENGAGING DFS CUSTOMERS THROUGH PERSONALIZED TARGETING AND SEGMENTING THE MOST PROMISING CLIENT BASE

Oleksiy Anokhin, based on original case authored by Minakshi Ramji
30 Jul 2018

by Oleksiy Anokhin, based on original case authored by Minakshi Ramji Smartphone users are overwhelmed with access to information through multiple channels – websites, social media, and messages. As a result, people can become inured to numerous everyday messages, which they may perceive as spam. How can a provider approach their customers using these digital channels without irritating them? The case of Juntos, a Silicon Valley technology company that partnered […]

LENDDO: EXPANDING FINANCIAL INCLUSION THROUGH MINING SOCIAL MEDIA DATA

Oleksiy Anokhin
28 Jun 2018

by Oleksiy Anokhin, adapted from a case study by Dean Caire Introduction Digital Financial Services provide an enormous opportunity to deliver formal financial services to underserved individuals.  Large obstacles remain toward meeting this goal, such as customers who lack identification cards; or, for example, on the national level, inadequate credit bureaus.   These types of barriers push users to seek financial services from the informal sector, which can carry higher risks and […]