David Porteous

David is the founder and director of Bankable Frontier Associates (www.bankablefrontier.com), a niche consulting firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The firm specializes in three practice areas of the access to financial services sector: technology and access to financial services, housing finance and performance measurement for financial institutions. Clients include private telco and banking groups, bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors and private foundations.  In a previous capacity, David was involved in supporting innovative approaches to the extension of financial services in southern Africa, including several m-banking initiatives. Inter alia, he recently completed a DFID commissioned report on the “Enabling Environment for M-Banking in Africa.” This involved extensive interaction with providers and regulators to identify the potential for impact, as well as the required factors if m-banking is to have a major impact on access to financial services.  He is currently working with DFID-CGAP to assess the enabling environment for international remittances to developing countries. David has a B. Commerce (UCT), M. Phil. (Cambridge) and Ph.D. in economics (Yale). He is married to Rebecca and has two sons.

By David Porteous

Blog

Does “Effective Interoperability” Equal Financial Inclusion?

The measurement of “effective interoperability,” depends on the ultimate policy goal, which could be financial inclusion. In the case of Pakistan, “effective interconnection” could facilitate a 100 million Pakistanis with electronic financial access within eight years.
Blog

Is There a Business Case for Offering Services to G2P Recipients?

The biggest challenge when it comes to the business case for banks is that the amount per grant payment is small, and as client research has shown, very little of each payment is left behind in the form of savings.
Research

Social Cash Transfers and Financial Inclusion

This Focus Note analyzes the profitability, affordability and use of electronic social cash transfers in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and South Africa. By the end of 2012, it is expected that in the countries studied, only a small minority of G2P recipients will still be paid in cash.
Blog

A LiFi World

A LiFi world is therefore one in which every person has an electronic store of value which they can easily use to make and receive payments in real time. Just like in places with reliable on-grid electricity, we can turn on a light on-demand, knowing that it will work and that the cost of flicking the switch will be small in relation to the benefits.
Blog

The Internet and Mobile Money – Scenarios for 2020

In 2009, CGAP and DFID talked with over 200 technology and finance leaders from 30 countries to determine how branchless banking, including mobile banking, might look in the year 2020.