cfi-blog — > Posted by Bindu Ananth and Amit Shah, President of IFMR Trust and Head of Business Intelligence at IFMR Rural Finance Bindu and Amit co-edited the recently published book Financial Engineering for Low-Income Households. An edited compilation of articles, the book focuses on using financial engineering to design financial services for low-income households....
cfi-blog — > Posted by Andrea Horak, Program Coordinator, CFI The Investing in Inclusive Finance program at the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion explores the practices of investors in inclusive finance. Across areas including risk, governance, stakeholder alignment, and fund management, this blog series highlights what’s being done to help the industry better utilize...
cfi-blog — > Posted by Center Staff On Tuesday, in conjunction with the release of our second FI2020 Mapping the Invisible Market report, Growing Income, Growing Inclusion: How Rising Incomes at the Base of the Pyramid Will Shape Financial Inclusion, we hosted a live, interactive webcast with MasterCard. The webcast explored the relationship...
cfi-blog — > Posted by Jeffrey Riecke, Communications Assistant, CFI The World Economic Forum on East Asia was held last week in Myanmar. Following the country’s recent political and economic changes, the forum was Myanmar’s first international meeting that spanned leaders from industry, government, academia, and civil society. The three themes of this...
cfi-blog — > Posted by Alyssa Passarelli, Communications and Operations Assistant, the Smart Campaign Sergio Guzmán conducting a Smart Assessor’s Training in Budva, Montenegro The month of May was filled with many exciting events for the Smart Campaign. Smart Campaign director, Isabelle Barrès traveled to Guatemala and Bosnia and Herzegovina for two Client Protection Certification...
cfi-blog — > Posted by Syed Mohsin Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer, Pakistan Microfinance Network The Financial Inclusion 2020 campaign at the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion is building a movement toward full financial inclusion by 2020. Accordingly, this blog series will spotlight financial inclusion efforts around the globe, share insights coming out of the...
cfi-blog — > Posted by Jeffrey Riecke, Communications Assistant, CFI Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesian President and co-chair of the High Level Panel, and Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary General A few days ago the U.N. High Level Panel submitted its final report to the U.N. Secretary General on recommendations for the global development agenda...
cgap — In many countries with large numbers of poor Muslims, Sharia-compliant microfinance is one among many interventions designed to bring citizens into the financial mainstream.This is not the case in Sudan. Here, Sharia-compliant microfinance is the government-mandated rule, not the exception. That’s because the country’s banking system went fully Islamic in...
cfi-blog — > Posted by Isobel Coleman, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative, the Council on Foreign Relations The following post was originally published on Democracy in Development, Coleman’s CFR blog. Imagine life without a bank account. Completing a simple financial transaction can require traveling a distance,...
cgap — CGAP commissioned Carol Benson and Scott Loftesness of Glenbrook Partners to glean lessons from more developed payments markets, like the United States and Japan, that could be relevant for interoperability questions in global branchless banking markets.We developed the following set of five hypotheses that correspond to the kinds of questions...
assets.newamerica — Editor's note: The Heritage Foundation is hosting a Google+ Hangout tomorrow (5/31) at noon Eastern Time to discuss ways to promote savings in America. Justin King from the Asset Building Program will participate, along with Stuart Butler of Heritage and Joanna Smith-Ramani of the Doorways to Dreams Fund. The post...
cgap — After extensive external and internal consultations, the CGAP Board (ExCom) approved the next five-year strategic direction for CGAP at its annual meeting in Amsterdam. The strategic direction lays out five priority themes, desired outcomes, and activities against each priority. We're highlighting these themes in a special blog series.
cfi-blog — > Posted by Elizabeth Davidson, Financial Inclusion 2020 Consultant The Financial Inclusion 2020 campaign at the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion is building a movement toward full financial inclusion by 2020. Accordingly, this blog series will spotlight financial inclusion efforts around the globe, share insights coming out of the creation of a...
cgap — Considering Nigeria’s socio-economic particularities and that only about 1% of the adult population has insurance coverage, Nigeria’s development plan, “Vision 2020,” describes the country’s insurance sector as a huge and untapped opportunity.
cfi-blog — > Posted by Ignacio Mas, Independent Consultant That was a fun debate at Fletcher. This or that? Formal or informal? Pro or con? Of course the answer always lies somewhere in the middle, it’s about and rather than or, to use the trite expression. It would certainly be ironic to seek to be inclusive by...
assets.newamerica — Editor's note: this post appears as an op-ed in today's edition of the San Francisco Chronicle. It is authored by Judy Darnell, Director of Public Policy at United Ways of California, and Aleta Sprague, Policy Analyst at New America Foundation.After Melissa’s parents kicked her out at age 15, she survived...
cgap — After extensive external and internal consultations, the CGAP Board (ExCom) approved the next five-year strategic direction for CGAP at its annual meeting in Amsterdam. The strategic direction lays out five priority themes, desired outcomes, and activities against each priority. We're highlighting these themes in a special blog series.
cfi-blog — > Posted by Alyssa Passarelli and Jeffrey Riecke, the Smart Campaign and CFI One good deed often leads to another. Whether it’s by learning about new opportunities to do good or by an increase in peer pressure, positive changes are contagious. This also applies to business practices, including how financial institutions treat...
cfi-blog — > Posted by Jasmine Thomas, Program Officer for International Financial Capability & Asset Building, Citi Foundation The Financial Inclusion 2020 campaign at the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion is building a movement toward full financial inclusion by 2020. Accordingly, this blog series will spotlight financial inclusion efforts around the globe, share insights...
cfi-blog — > Posted by Meghan Greene, Manager, Microfinance CEO Working Group Last June, at the annual Social Performance Task Force meeting in Jordan, the members of the Microfinance CEO Working Group and their lead social performance directors announced their plan to conduct the first large-scale analysis of the Universal Standards of Social...
cfi-blog — > Posted by Jenny C. Aker, Assistant Professor of Economics, Tufts University Today’s post continues the debate from the Extreme Inclusion conference at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. The proposition, as you will recall: “Financial inclusion means formal inclusion.” Yesterday, we heard from the Pro side of the argument (represented...
cfi-blog — > Posted by Elisabeth Rhyne, Managing Director, CFI Kim Wilson, of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, is a consummate educator who knows that drama leads to learning. That’s why she staged a competitive debate to kick off her Extreme Inclusion conference. The Proposition: Financial inclusion means formal inclusion. On the Pro side...
cfi-blog — > Posted by Elisabeth Rhyne, Managing Director, CFI The following post was originally published on the CGAP Blog. Gabriel Davel knows what he’s talking about, and so should you. Davel is the veteran bank regulator who helped create and lead South Africa’s National Credit Regulator, one of the most capable financial consumer protection agencies in...