Blog

Using Research to Take Product Development to the Next Level

There are multiple reasons for financial institutions to respond to the needs of their clients, including meeting the mission of the institution, expanding market share, and achieving long term profitability.

The AP Crisis One Year On: The NCAER Study

The recent study by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), sponsored by the Microfinance Network (MFIN), brings much-needed data into the discussion. Covering over ten thousand households across multiple Indian regions, this study merits attention.

Is Microcredit Over-Indebtedness a Worldwide Problem?

In a nutshell, one microcredit market after another is entering into a new, uncharted world of credit saturation. In these markets, over-indebtedness will probably pose a major risk for clients, not to mention the lenders.

“When Product Innovation Meets Agile Development”

This post describes a second key feature of the three Product Labs which will be established by CGAP’s bank, telco and other partners.

Helping the Ultra-Poor “Graduate”

If we insist that the poorest are a separate segment from the “not so poor,” we also believe it is crucial to identify the many disparities within this group.

The Microfinance Sector in Yemen

In Yemen, the microfinance sector in 2010 has made significant progress, with the number of active clients increasing by 100%.

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.

The Role Public Funders Can Play in Branchless Banking

Given the current momentum, is there a meaningful role that public funders can play without crowding out private investment?

Linking Financial Behaviors to Product Development

The Financial Diaries methodology is increasingly recognized by financial service providers and analysts as a powerful method to collect sequential, spatial, and social network data on economic transactions, to pinpoint drivers of uptake and to analyze usage trends.

Savings Groups

More than 5 million poor people around the world are members of Savings Groups that provide essential services to help manage their daily lives.

Microfinance and the Arab Spring in Egypt

Revolutions that have occurred, or the so-called Arab Spring, in some of the Arab countries have had a direct impact on the microfinance industry, like all other sectors. However, the impact has differed from one country to another, according to the relevant background of each country.

What Can We Learn From Selling Soap?

This post includes a detailed presentation of CGAP’s analysis of 23 firms from banking, microfinance, mobile, fast moving consumer goods, and Silicon Valley. It also describes the key features of three Product Labs which will be established by CGAP’s bank, telco and other partners.

Do We Need Pink Check Books?

Women think and behave differently than men when it comes to financial matters. These differences have major implications for product design and marketing strategy.

The Regulatory Framework for Microfinance in MENA, 2011

In order to meet the challenges, a well developed regulatory framework as well as a strong support structure for the MFIs in the region is core. Sound regulations will enable the sector to grow in a sustainable way.

From Microcredit to Microfinance: Ambitions for Tunisia

After the revolution of January 2011, Tunisians experienced poverty at a level far more critical than official statements had suggested. Microfinance has quickly been identified as one of the tools that can help reduce inequalities, address exclusion, and strengthen the country’s economic fabric.

FOROMIC 2011 – Pura Vida!

This pura vida spirit could also be used to describe the status of financial inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean, as the industry proactively pushes for product innovation to increase access and lower cost, while confronting challenges like overindebtedness and rural finance.

Segmenting the “Bottom of the Pyramid” in Mexico

Reaching the poor with a range of useful, convenient, and affordable financial services is challenging for all the reasons we know. In the context of Mexico, access has increased significantly in the past few years (nearly 60% of all households), and changes in regulation enabling correspondent banking are likely to bring the access barrier down even further.

Faster Horses or Better Insights?

Customers often can’t or won’t tell you what they want, so you must work to dig down to what they really need. Valuable services not only meet a deeply-felt need, they tackle a poorly met need.

What Does Focusing on the Client Really Mean?

Perhaps, we should start the conversation with family finances, how the poor generate their income, and the big expenses they incur along the way.

Credit Reporting and the Indian MFI Bill

For more than a decade stakeholders across the spectrum in countries around the world have pinned hopes on ‘just the right microfinance regulation’ solving problems only indirectly affected by regulatory policy.