Cristina Martinez

Cristina Martinez works on the Digital Rails team, exploring the role and viability of cash-in cash-out (CICO) agents in the uptake of digital financial services for last-mile households. She is interested in unlocking the private sector's potential to advance financial inclusion, from banks to fintech, as well as ensuring that the right consumer protection frameworks are in place.

Cristina has ten years of experience in the financial sector. She worked for six years at Citibank in consumer protection, conduct risk, and product management. Previously, Cristina worked at The World Bank in DEC Finance and Private Sector Development in various financial inclusion and consumer protection projects.

Cristina holds a Master's degree in Business Administration and a Master's in Public Policy from The University of Chicago and a Bachelor's and Master's in economics from Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia.

By Cristina Martinez

Blog

Doing Good by Doing Well: Women Banking Agents in India

In India's Bihar state, women Bank Sakhi agents help enable financial inclusion for rural, vulnerable, and hard-to-reach customers, more so than the traditional agents - but various gender norms constrain how they operate. We discuss solutions.
Blog

How Did Bancolombia Create a Successful Rural Agent Network at Scale?

Bancolombia is a great example of a provider that's been successful in developing rural agent business models at scale, therefore playing a critical role in furthering financial inclusion. Here, we look at the factors that explain their success.
Blog

High Tech, High Touch: Bringing Formal Loans to Rural India

Despite its success developing digital public infrastructure to enable inclusive financial development, India still faces challenges in bringing formal credit to rural and low-income households. A new app supported by CGAP aims to provide a solution.
Research

Mystery Shopping for Financial Services

This Technical Guide is designed to enable policy makers with jurisdiction over market conduct issues, consumer protection organizations, and development agencies to conduct mystery shopping exercises.