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Reducing Malnutrition through the Graduation Approach

BRAC’s Targeting the Ultra Poor (TUP) program employs the Graduation Approach, through which participant households receive income-generating assets and training on business development, nutrition and social development. Researchers examined the effects of TUP on nutritional outcomes in Bangladesh, and results have been promising.

How Hard Is It to Use Mobile Money as a Rural Bangladeshi Woman?

Women in Bangladesh have one of the lowest rates of mobile money usage in the world. Does the dearth of usage indicate a lack of appropriate products and services? Just how hard is it to use mobile money if you are a rural Bangladeshi woman?

Mobile Money in Bangladesh: Still a Long Way to Go

Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing mobile money markets in the world. Yet, mobile financial services in Bangladesh have a lot of room to grow before they can claim any wide national impact.

Telenor’s Shared Agents: Digital Finance Catalyst for Bangladesh?

New business models for agent networks, such as shared agent networks, are emerging and may offer more sustainable, competitive and efficient mobile financial services.

Digital Finance in Bangladesh: Where are all the Women?

Bangladesh has long been a success story for women’s financial inclusion, but in terms of digital finance, the story is very different.

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.

bKash Bangladesh: What Explains its Fast Start?

bKash is the fastest growing provider of mobile financial services in Bangladesh, having registered 11 million accounts in just 30 months. Several factors have combined to help bKash be an early success in a relatively new market.

Three Lessons from Mobile Microinsurance in Bangladesh

Bima recently commissioned a survey of active Bima Life Insurance customers in order to better understand the profile and behavioral patterns of mobile microinsurance customers in Bangladesh. This blog gives an overview of the findings.

Transitions from OTC to Wallets: Evidence from Bangladesh

Despite being a relative newcomer in the mobile financial services arena, Bangladesh is already making its mark.

Can MFIs Leverage Mobile Banking to Serve Customers Better?

When given the choice of using a mobile payment platform - bKash - or a traditional bank branch, 42% of business borrowers in a BRAC pilot chose to use both options for making payments.

Mobile Wallets: Is a Transition Underway in Bangladesh?

E-wallet use is becoming more common in Bangladesh. However, OTC transactions are still very popular and will likely remain so until the process of opening an e-wallet account and using it regularly become easier for and more attractive to the poor.

Why Some Bangladeshis Don’t Love Their MFIs

A series of 43 household interviews in rural Bangladesh uncovered the complex financial lives of the interviewees and their seemingly souring view of MFIs.

Comparing Branchless Banking in Bangladesh and Pakistan

What can be learned from benchmarking Bangladesh to the regional leader Pakistan which had begun two years earlier in 2009? Both have similar populations, mobile penetration and income levels making the comparison even more interesting.

Financial Inclusion In 2012: South Asian Highlights

Recent trends in South Asia reveal measured growth for microfinance, and a steady increase in branchless banking networks, across the region.

Tailoring Formal Financial Products for the Poor

In our last post, we shared findings from the South African, Bangladeshi and Indian Financial Diaries that built the case for formal and informal financial services serving different purposes in the portfolios of the poor. We found that the two should be viewed as complements rather than alternatives to each other.

The Growth of Mobile Financial Services in Bangladesh

In early 2010, we blogged about the steps identified for mobile financial services to take off in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has moved partly down this path. A newly released overview report on Mobile Financial Services by Bangladesh’s Central Bank highlights the progress achieved two years on.

Does Client Protection Matter to Clients?

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

Good Governance Is a Prerequisite for Good Business

The concept of granting loans to low-income people based on no more than a solidarity guarantee has evolved into a multibillion dollar industry.

How to Save Lives and Lower Fuel Consumption: Clean Cookstoves

Exposure to smoke from traditional cookstoves and open fires – the primary means of cooking and heating for nearly 3 billion people in the developing world – causes 2 million premature deaths annually, with women and children the most affected.

Can Data and Transparency Strengthen Microfinance?

We have come to expect that consistent, reliable data strengthens microfinance performance and policy dialog.