Recent Blogs
E-Commerce Is Taking Off in Rural China: 3 Lessons for Other Countries
China's e-commerce market has $2 trillion in annual sales and is growing as digital services reach rural areas. CGAP visited several villages and spoke with farmers and manufacturers about e-commerce. Here's what we learned.
China's Super Platforms: The Impact Question
What impact are super platforms having on low-income customers and small businesses? CGAP and Mastercard Foundation traveled to China to see firsthand.
2017 Global Findex: Behind the Numbers on Rural China
What does (and doesn't) the latest Findex tell us about China's urban-rural divide in financial inclusion?
Public Clearinghouse Could Shake Up China’s Mobile Payment Market
China will soon require payments providers, including Alipay and WeChat Pay, to connect to a public online payments clearinghouse. Here’s what we know so far about how this institution will work and what it could mean for mobile payments.
Smartphones Are Common in Myanmar: Is Digital Finance Far Behind?
Smartphone penetration of 80 percent and low bank account access suggest that digital financial services will take off in Myanmar. China’s experience may offer clues about how and when this will happen.
QR Codes and Financial Inclusion: Reasons for Optimism
QR codes are gaining traction in China as a way to make digital payments, but will they catch on in other countries?
What Can Mobile Money Make Possible? China Has Many Answers
What's the secret to Alipay and WeChat Pay's success in mobile payments? Creating in-app universes of bundled services has played a big role by making mobile payments more useful to customers.
Inside QR Codes: How Black & White Dots Simplify Digital Payments
QR codes last year facilitated $2.5 trillion in retail payments in China, and their use is gaining momentum in countries like India. But how do they work? And what is their potential to increase financial inclusion?
Six Tips for Policy on Disruptive Digital Financial Inclusion
Digital technologies are changing the financial inclusion landscape worldwide by revolutionizing access to finance, connecting hundreds of millions to formal financial services for the first time. Financial market regulators, supervisors and overseers are racing to keep pace with these developments.
New Accounts in China Drive Global Financial Inclusion Figures
The 2014 Findex found that of the world’s 500 million newly banked adults, more than one third (180 million) live in China. Three positive trends emerge from this data.
Leveraging Mobile Phone Data: Tiaxa’s Balance Advance
Tiaxa's balance advance service is making 50 million advances each month to prepaid mobile subscribers - generally at no extra cost to the end user. How does it work? Big data plays a part.
Killer Apps in China: Social Networks and Financial Inclusion
In China, financial services offered through social media have recently begun to take off, with interesting potential to expand financial inclusion.
Postal Savings Bank of China: Inclusive Finance in Rural China
The Postal Savings Bank of China has five advantages over the "big 4" commercial banks when it comes to serving the rural population.
Bridging the Urban-Rural Corridor in China
Migrant workers remain one of the most financially excluded population segments in China. Without bank accounts, sending money home via remittances can be complicated and expensive.
China and Kenya: Different Models for Scaling Branchless Banking
In China, branchless banking initiatives are starting to reach scale, but the story has different foundations from other country success stories, such as Kenya.
Branchless Banking in China: Will Regulation Support Innovation?
China's pilot of 500,000 banking agents show significant promise for financial inclusion. Allowing these agents to offer a greater variety of services, such as taking deposits and opening new accounts, could lead to faster growth and more usage.
Financial Inclusion in China: Will Innovation Bridge the Gap?
Technology and innovation hold great promise for deepening financial access in China. But despite recent improvements, China is home to a huge unbanked population - second only in size to India.
Microfinance, E-Commerce, Big Data and China: The Alibaba Story
China's Alibaba Group is not only the world's largest e-commerce company, but it is also an innovator in microfinance. Alibaba leverages big data to link rural villages with the goods, sales channels and financial services they need to grow their businesses.
China – The Future Leader in Branchless Banking for the Poor?
A look at the world's biggest market for branchless banking.