Wameek Noor

Wameek Noor is a consultant with CGAP's Digital Finance Frontiers Initiative. He has collaborated with banks, mobile network operators, technology companies, and CGAP's strategic partners on a wide range of cutting edge experimentation activities, sharing useful global learning that has helped catalyze the digital finance services eco-system, including conceptualization, design and development of financial products targeting the financially unbanked.

Prior to CGAP, Noor was a consultant to both the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) and the Financial and Private Sector Development (FPD) network of the World Bank. At the World Bank he frequently trained senior public sector regulators and co-authored numerous publications on mobile money, technology-enabled international remittances, and other innovative financial services. At AFI, he played a key role in AFI's strategy for the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) and AFI’s Pacific Islands Working Group, fostering discussions with South Pacific Countries to help them better understand innovative financial products and risk based regulatory approaches.

Before the World Bank, Noor worked with Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, where he was extensively involved in using microfinance to spearhead technology-driven development projects through mobile phones, the Internet, and solar technology. He has also worked at the Corporate Executive Board, a strategy consulting firm. Noor is a graduate of the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University with a master of arts degree in economics and international development, and Vassar College, with a bachelor's degree in economics.

By Wameek Noor

Blog

Daily Diaries Reveal Bangladesh’s Shifting Financial Landscape

In Bangladesh, 50 respondents are providing full daily details of all transactions in an ongoing financial diaries project. This project aims to provide insights into the money management behavior of low-income rural Bangladeshis. What have the diaries revealed so far?
Research

Juntos Finanzas: A Case Study

This case study describes the Juntos platform, which aims to address the engagement gap between customers and providers. It describes how it works, what it can and cannot do, early results, and issues arising from initial implementations.
Blog

Supervisor’s Experience with Expanding Agent Networks: 4 Insights

As agent networks expand, they bring great opportunity by facilitating cutting edge digital financial products. But with this expansion comes risk and serious implications for financial supervision.
Research

Supervision of Banks and Nonbanks Operating through Agents

This paper draws from research conducted in Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania, and Uganda to look at how providers identify, classify, and manage risks related to the use of agents and how supervisors assess providers.
Blog

Should Your Friend Be Your Banker? Digital Models Test the Waters

A recent study by CGAP identified three Person to Person (P2P) business models that could be applicable to underbanked populations in developing countries and help them move up the financial ladder.