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Top 10 List: Powerful Partnerships in Branchless Banking

A few weeks ago in Washington, DC, we hosted many of our partners who are implementing branchless banking products and services around the world. This was a chance not only for us to learn about the state of play of the industry at a global level, but also to allow the partners themselves to share learnings and experiences with each other.

Pakistan: a Laboratory for Innovation in Branchless Banking

We are excited about the developments that we’re seeing in branchless banking in Pakistan, which have led us to call it a “laboratory” for innovation.

Waiting in Line…Where’s My Agent? Headlines and Highlights

I’m blogging from Dakar, Senegal where I had a stark reminder of why innovation in financial services is so necessary.

Cash Transfers and Mobile Money: Making it Work

There are many reasons to be excited about mobile phones as a way to distribute cash transfers, such as government payments or NGO cash-for-work programs.

Branchless Banking Headlines & Highlights: Updates from Africa and Beyond

Summer is now officially over here in Washington and the busy fall season is off to a quick start. If you are just getting back into high gear, maybe this is a good time for us to recap some of the things we’ve been discussing on the blog over the last couple months, some of the latest news that’s caught our attention, and some things to keep your eye on in the coming weeks.

So Where Are We in the Link Between G2P and Financial Services?

The link to financial inclusion is one that can often get forgotten in the quest for payment efficiency.

State Bank of Pakistan Removes Barriers to Branchless Banking

In March 2008, the State Bank of Pakistan introduced some of the first regulations anywhere in the world designed specifically to encourage branchless banking. The regulations allowed a number of different business models and permitted agents to deliver financial services on behalf of banks.

The Last Frontier for Branchless Banking: State of Play in WAEMU

Access to finance in WAEMU is very low, even by comparison to other regions of Africa. The rate of bancarization announced by the BCEAO in December 2010 was 9.5% and 12.7% of the population had an account with an MFI.

Branchless Banking in South Africa

South Africa has often been used as a case study by those with an interest in financial inclusion. The country has an advanced banking infrastructure with nearly 10,000 ATMs and over 100,000 POS devices deployed.

Does Branchless Banking Reach Poor People? The Evidence from Mali

This is the third posting in a mini-series in which we present new evidence from three countries on whether branchless banking is reaching poor people. This post looks at Orange Money in Mali. Previous posts looked at India and Pakistan.

Does Branchless Banking Reach Poor People? The Evidence from India

This is the second post in a mini-series in which we present new evidence from three countries on whether branchless banking is reaching poor people. This post looks at banking customers acquired and serviced by Eko as a Business Correspondent of banks in India. The first post looked at EasyPaisa customers in Pakistan.

Does Branchless Banking Reach Poor People? The Evidence from Pakistan

In this mini-series we explore new evidence from three countries on whether branchless banking is reaching poor people starting today with Pakistan.

Pakistan: Branchless Banking’s Business Model Laboratory

Over the past several months, we have taken a close look at the branchless banking industry in a few key countries. We have presented our learning from Brazil, Mexico and India over the last few weeks. Today we continue with our analysis of Pakistan and share this summary note on the branchless banking industry.

Centre for Women Co-operative Development, Pakistan

Innovation at CWCD has led to a complete organizational transformation, where CWCD has let go of its conventional microfinance programs and dedicated itself completely towards Islamic Microfinance.

Can Data and Transparency Strengthen Microfinance?

We have come to expect that consistent, reliable data strengthens microfinance performance and policy dialog.

Commercial Investment Landscape in Branchless Banking

This blog post summarizes a quick review of commercial investments in mobile financial services and branchless banking. We focused our review on equity deals between 2005 and 2010 involving mobile payment companies, agent companies, payment platforms and others providers that we knew were targeting the financially excluded in developing countries.

Familias en Acción: A Financial Inclusion Strategy

In this post, our guest bloggers discuss the Government of Colombia’s efforts to use Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs as a gateway to financial inclusion.

Islamic Microfinance Challenge: Profiling Tameer Bank, Pakistan

Pakistan does not have any visible Islamic microfinance banks or institutions, so this is a critical project to move forward, albeit in a staged way to limit risk and cost and making sure that we apply new learning as we go.

G2P Payments for Flood Victims in Pakistan

Within just a few weeks this past fall, United Bank Limited (UBL) in Pakistan was able to design, procure, and distribute over one million VISA debit cards to the flood-affected citizens of Pakistan following the devastating flood.

Branchless Banking, G2P and Large Volume Payments

As branchless banking services reach the scale needed to be able to serve large segments of the population of a country, they are starting to strike partnerships with governments, businesses and not-for-profit organizations that need to make payments to large numbers of people.