Arisha Salman

Financial Sector Specialist

Arisha Salman is a Financial Sector Specialist with CGAP’s Finance for Inclusive Development outcome area. Her work is focused on unlocking how Data can enhance the value of financial services for low-income and underserved individuals with a focus on the development, implementation, and scale-up of Open Finance frameworks as well as on closing gender gaps at the country level. Arisha was also a member of the team that developed the Strategy for CGAP VII. She previously supported CGAP’s work on Digital Business Models with a focus on Inclusive Digital Banking and the Digital Divide.

Before joining CGAP, Arisha worked for over five years on digital financial inclusion, SME development and gender mainstreaming in South and Southeast Asia. She has held positions as a Management Consultant with the Financial Services Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers and with the Gender Equity Thematic Group at the Asian Development Bank. Arisha holds a master's degree in public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and an undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Delhi. She is fluent in Hindi and Urdu.

By Arisha Salman

Blog

The Dual Binding Constraints to Scaling AI in Finance

Despite rapid advances in AI capabilities, the underlying data foundations have not kept pace. AI adoption is fundamentally constrained by the strength, inclusiveness, and usability of underlying data – not as much by the sophistication of algorithms.
Blog

Personal Financial Management Tools Can Boost Financial Health in India

Personal financial management (PFM) apps are emerging as a potential driver of improved financial health. By aggregating data across accounts and generating real-time insights, they promise personalized financial advice. But how is this translating into meaningful outcomes for users?
Blog

How Morocco’s New WFI Coalition Redefines Business-as-Usual

Morocco’s Women’s Financial Inclusion Coalition is a bold, coordinated effort to close the country’s gender gap in finance by aligning public and private actors, linking policy to practice, and driving systemic, lasting change for women.
Blog

Six Ways Open Finance Can Drive Competition and Inclusion

Open finance can make financial markets more inclusive and competitive, but only if designed intentionally. CGAP highlights six policy levers to ensure it benefits low-income and underserved people.
Blog

From Access to Agency: The Next Chapter in Women’s Financial Inclusion

Despite global progress, meaningful gender gaps in account ownership still persist in 65 economies. Our latest Findex blog unpacks new data on women’s financial inclusion and identifies the opportunities ahead.