Tilman Ehrbeck

Tilman is a former CEO of CGAP. As such, he was responsible for the strategic direction and management of the organization, a global partnership of 34 funders with the common objective to advance financial inclusion for the poor. Prior to CGAP, Tilman was a Partner with the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he held a series of leadership positions in the Global Banking and Healthcare Practices. He has worked in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Tilman holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the EU-sponsored European University Institute (EUI) and an undergraduate degree from the University of Hamburg.

By Tilman Ehrbeck

Blog

More than Semantics: From “Microcredit” to “Financial Inclusion

Over the past 15 years, the field that CGAP aspires to advance has broadened from the initial focus on microcredit to microfinance, to access-to-finance, and most recently financial inclusion.
Blog

Evolving Microfinance–Why We Might Appear to Talk Past Each Other

Now, over time the field realized that this story, while true at its narrow core, is too simplistic and other factors are important to achieve sustained, large-scale poverty reduction and growth of local economy.
Blog

Southern Development Agendas versus Northern Angst

India is on a Financial Inclusion roll. In the last couple of months alone, the Government has decided on several policy and regulatory changes that have the potential to significantly accelerate financial access to the more than half of Indian households who remain financially excluded.
Research

Financially Inclusive Ecosystems: The Roles of Government Today

This Focus Note first describes the challenges of the broader financial inclusion landscape and then explores three promising roles government can play in developing more financially inclusive ecosystems.
Blog

Financially Inclusive Ecosystems: The Roles of Government Today

Different products present different risks and delivery challenges, and it is unlikely that a single class of service providers will effectively provide all the products poor people need.