Recent Blogs
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How Can Embedded Financial Services Better Serve Platform Workers?
Platforms’ extensive data on their workers could support customized product design, and their digital rails could seamlessly deliver financial services. What opportunities might financial services embedded within platforms enable?Blog
Financial Inclusion is Key to Fulfilling the Promise of Platform Work
As platforms transform the nature of work in emerging markets, embedding financial services for workers into platforms is pertinent and could point to pathways for including the greater informal economy as well.Blog
Mobile Payments Take Shape in Latin America & the Caribbean
Mobile payments took hold over a decade ago, but Latin America didn't experience the traction seen elsewhere. Since then, two emerging business models for digital payments in Colombia and Haiti achieved particular success. What did they get right?Blog
Can Funders Afford to Ignore Gender Norms in Financial Inclusion?
Gender norms create a financial system where women do not have the same access and opportunities as men. If funders want to go beyond closing the gender gap in access and build more equitable financial systems, they need to address them.Blog
Regulating Platform-Based Finance: Seeing the Big Picture
The scale and scope of platform-based finance extends beyond the powers of a single regulator – cooperation across agencies will be essential.Blog
Consumer Protection: Top Policy Priority for Funders. What Lies Ahead?
Financial inclusion funders have been elevating financial consumer protection as a priority. Our latest blog discusses how funders can turn that interest into action.Blog
Platform-Based Finance: How Can Regulators Preserve Competition?
As big tech platforms enter the financial services space, they could potentially undermine competition in ways that set back financial inclusion. How can regulators preserve healthy competition and harness the potential of platform-based finance?Blog
The Pandemic Wake-Up Call: Gender Norms Matter in Financial Inclusion
COVID-19 is the latest reminder that the norms constraining women’s economic participation need to be addressed in global development efforts, including in financial inclusion.Blog
Savings at the Pump: Financing Solar Irrigation to Support Rural Women
Solar water pumps can be a sustainable, low-cost solution for irrigating farms. Asset financing from organizations like PEG Africa could help more women to obtain these cost- and time-saving tools.Blog
Consumer Associations: A Major Player in Responsible Digital Finance
In this World Consumer Rights Day blog, we discuss the ways consumer associations can make digital financial services more responsible, especially for women and vulnerable customers.Blog
Break the Bias: Evidence Shows Digital Finance Risks Hit Women Hardest
CGAP has identified dozens of consumer risks facing digital financial services users around the world, and emerging evidence suggests women are more at risk than men. Here are some ways to mitigate these risks for women.Blog
How Can We Build on COVID-19 Progress in Women’s Financial Inclusion
COVID-19 has led millions of women to open accounts, spurred investments in digital infrastructure, and built momentum around women’s financial inclusion. By taking the right steps, we can push women’s financial inclusion further than ever before.Blog
Better Business Through Gender Transformative Approaches
Gender transformative approaches are good for business. How can companies accelerate their adoption? Insights from recent CGAP and IDH – The Sustainable Trade Initiative events point to a number of answers.Blog
Platform-Based Finance: Are Regulators Up to the Data Protection Task?
As big techs and other platforms ramp up their financial service offerings in emerging markets, regulators can look at developments in advanced economies to get a glimpse into the data protection issues they will need to consider.Blog
3 Regulatory Challenges Posed by Platform-Based Finance
Between the global big techs and the local unicorns, platforms will soon be a major force in financial services if they are not already. Here are the three main sets of challenges they pose for regulators.Blog
Pitfalls in MFI Digitization: Overlooking the Regulatory Environment
Digitization can benefit microfinance institutions (MFIs), but it also creates regulatory complexity. Losing sight of the regulatory environment can lead to costly mistakes. Here are three regulatory aspects of digitization for MFIs to consider.Blog
We Agree – Life Stages Likely Impact DFS Usage Among Young Women
Certain life stages have a significant impact on women’s economic empowerment and use of financial services - particularly for young women.Blog
Reflection: Coordinating Responses to Microfinance Solvency Challenges
The reverberating effects of COVID-19 continue to pose challenges for segments of the microfinance sector. Here are three areas where a coordinated response among microfinance stakeholders will be important going forward.Blog
The Essential Role of Finance in Education, Housing and Health Care
CGAP’s research suggests that financial services are important tools for advancing equitable access to quality essential services like education, housing and health care.Blog