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How Social Media Is Fueling Women’s Entrepreneurship in Myanmar

Many women in Myanmar and across Asia are using social media to conduct online commerce. Meet three entrepreneurs who are engaging in this type of informal e-commerce in Myanmar and have created jobs for other women.

Financial Innumeracy: A Global Problem for Digital Finance?

Mounting evidence suggests financial innumeracy presents a bigger barrier to financial inclusion than is often acknowledged. Here are three ways to improve numeracy.

Listening to the Voice of the Customer: Social Media and Beyond

Financial services providers can engage customers in new and exciting ways on social media, but call centers and other types of direct interaction still matter.

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.

Wave Money Myanmar: The Power of Smartphone Design

Myanmar has experienced remarkable growth in smartphone penetration compared to other frontier markets. A partnership between Wave Money, CGAP and Small Surfaces is leveraging human-centered design to build a digital finance app, seeking to capitalize on this opportunity to reach the unbanked.

Low Financial Inclusion, High Cash Usage in Myanmar

For the first time, Myanmar was included in the Global Findex survey and analysis. Insights show that although usage of formal services also remains low, cash usage remains high.

Setting the Stage for Mobile Money in Myanmar

The rapid growth in telecommunications coverage in Myanmar is laying important groundwork that can support growth of digital financial services for the unbanked.

Myanmar: A Changing Role for Microfinance after Natural Disaster

In the wake of the most destructive natural disaster in Myanmar's history, a leading microfinance institution decided to make a big change to better serve clients in times of difficulty.

Understanding Typical Financial Behavior in Myanmar

A recent survey of 5,500 households is a gold mine of information on the demand and supply of financial services in Myanmar. Providers, policy makers, donors and investors already are starting to use the data to guide their policies.

Charting Times of Change: Money Practice and Behavior in Myanmar

A seven-person team heads to Myanmar to understand the formal and informal ways in which the poor transact, save and invest.

Financial Inclusion in Myanmar: 10 Things You Should Know

The financial inclusion ecosystem in Myanmar is changing rapidly. Here are 10 things you should know about financial inclusion in Myanmar.

Financial Inclusion Highlights From China And Myanmar

In my (Chinese) New Year blog post of 2012, I predicted significant changes during the year of the dragon. I was not disappointed for sure. From a personal perspective I moved back to East Asia after several years of absence, and it was hard to recognize the region given the pace of development. In the last ten years poverty in East Asia has fallen from close to 50% down to 35% and economic growth has been relatively high compared with the rest of the world. Some of the most notable change has taken place in China, and in Myanmar more recently.

Can Myanmar Leapfrog Towards Financial Inclusion?

After years of isolation, the country is finally opening itself up as can be seen by the number of international investors stepping at the door.