Searching: Blogs

Cloud Computing for Financial Inclusion: Lessons from the Philippines

For the first time, the Philippine central bank has allowed a bank to move its core banking operations to the cloud. Its approach, balancing caution with forward thinking, holds lessons for regulators in other countries.

Cheaper Remittances: How Malaysia and the Philippines Paved the Way

Globally, people pay an average fee of 6.9 percent to send money to family and others abroad. In one of Asia’s largest remittance corridors, between Malaysia and the Philippines, the average fee is only 3.7 percent. Smart policies have played an important role in bringing prices down.

How the Philippines Applied I-SIP Approach to Basic Deposit Accounts

Learn how the Philippine Central Bank is advancing financial inclusion using a new CGAP toolkit for policy makers.

How SMS Messaging Can Change Financial Behaviors

Pilots with mobile money providers in the Philippines and Paraguay showed that simple SMS messaging can increase mobile wallet transactions.

Leading – by Learning – on Customer Centricity

Pioneer, a Philippines-based company, participated in a May 2016 learning visit to South Africa and Zambia to learn from other CGAP partners working on customer centricity: Zoona, PEP, and Hollard. What did they learn?

Putting Mystery Shopping to the Test in the Philippines

Typically, mystery shopping is associated with consumer market research. However, financial regulators - such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas - are also using it as a tool to check if financial institutions are complying with regulations.

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.

BanKO: Listening to Customers Helps Drive Growth

Taking a more customer-centric approach to financial services for the poor can help create a better value proposition for customers. BanKO, in the Philippines, is one company utilizing this approach.

Don’t Forget the Value Proposition for G2P E-Payment Recipients

Theory indicates that G2P payments can be a gateway to financial inclusion, but behavior on the ground suggests that receiving social cash transfers electronically has not influenced recipients to become e-payment users in general.

Infrastructure, Consistency are the Backbone of G2P E-Payments

A new Focus Note examines the opportunities and challenges involved in implementing social cash transfer schemes in Uganda, Haiti, the Philippines, and Kenya

E-Payments in Low-Income Settings: Cutting-Edge or High Risk?

Seen as having great potential for advancing the effectiveness of social and foreign assistance, e-payments can increase efficiency in a variety of ways. Four case studies take a closer look at programs in Haiti, Kenya, The Philippines and Uganda.

Using Mobile Banking for New Microfinance Business Models

BanKO is starting to blur the lines between microfinance and mobile banking by leveraging a network of agents to manage remote customer registration and due diligence, helping it to run more efficiently and at lower costs.

Innovation in Person to Government Payments in the Philippines

Smart Hub Inc., has developed an epayment innovation in the person to government (P2G) space, called BayadLoad (bayad meaning payment in Tagalog), which attempts to empower more users in the Philippines to use digital channels.

A Roadmap for MFIs to Analyze Volatility of Savings Portfolios

In the past five years, the microfinance community has encouraged microfinance institutions (MFIs) to broaden the scope of product offerings for their clients beyond microcredit, especially by offering savings products. However, in the microfinance sector, quantitative analysis of depositor behavior and aggregate savings balances is still nascent. Instead of using a savings volatility analysis to determine potential withdrawals, MFIs often estimate the amount of savings that should be held in cash or liquid assets, or they simply follow guidelines from regulators, funders or global networks.

Regulation Spurs Innovation in the Philippines

More and more policymakers are now recognizing that financial exclusion is a risk to political stability and impedes economic advancement, and that financial inclusion measures can complement, not undermine, financial stability, financial integrity, and consumer protection.

You Can’t Go Cash-Lite on Empty Accounts: E-money vs. Cash

Getting people to reach for their bank card or mobile phone at the store check-out requires giving them good reasons to store their money electronically.

Does Client Protection Matter to Clients?

What do microfinance clients think about client protection? Do client protection principles really matter to them?

Using Data to Better Understand Savings Needs of Customers

The use of data to drive management decisions and product design is well known in the financial sector. Today, most commercial banks utilize data analysis to support their decision-making.

The Poor Need Better Payment Services

Poor people’s need for domestic payments is often large, whether it is spurred by migrant labor remittances, informal support networks of friends and family, government welfare payments, or utility payments.

Consumer Insights into Disclosure

Disclosure and pricing transparency are important building blocks for countries looking to develop effective consumer protection regimes. They also are of particular importance for low-income populations, who often have lower levels of literacy and numeracy, and limited experience with formal financial products.