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

Research

Banking the Poor via G2P Payments

In this Focus Note, we look at government-to-person (G2P) payments, which include social transfers as well as wage and pension payments. With appropriate experimentation, these payments have the potential to become a vehicle for extending financial inclusion and improving the welfare of poor people.
Research

Scenarios for Branchless Banking in 2020

The growing use of branchless banking channels over the coming years is inevitable in most countries. But it’s far less certain whether large numbers of the unbanked poor will use these alternative channels for financial services beyond payments, such as savings and credit.
Research

Regulating Transformational Branchless Banking

In a fast increasing number, policy makers and regulators in other developing and transition countries are embracing “transformational branchless banking”—the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and nonbank retail channels to reduce costs of delivering financial services to clients beyond the reach of traditional banking.
Research

Financial Inclusion 2015

CGAP undertook a scenario-building exercise to help anticipate and prepare for the global demographic, political, and technological forces that will shape the future of microfinance. We and a wide range of outside experts grappled with the potential impact of these forces in order to craft positive and negative scenarios for the year 2015 that might instruct the microfinance actors today.
Research

Competition and Microcredit Interest Rates

In many countries, including Uganda, Bangladesh, and Bolivia, microfinance has become more competitive in recent years. Competition is generally expected to benefit consumers by offering a wider choice of appropriate products and providers, better service, and lower prices.