Recent Blogs
Digitizing G2P Payments: Lessons from Indonesia
Indonesia's digitization transformation for G2P payments showcases what can be achieved when strong government commitment and collaboration are combined with advanced technologies.
Pitfalls in MFI Digitization: Underestimating Change Management
Microfinance institutions are often unprepared to manage the changes that come with digitization. The good news is that through effective change management, they can digitize successfully and generate value for themselves and their customers.
Forging Her Own Path: Women and Informal Online Commerce
A growing number of financially excluded women are running businesses over social media platforms to improve their lives. What What does this mean for women's financial inclusion?
Ride-Hailing Drivers in Indonesia Discuss Livelihoods, COVID-19
You can learn a lot from the back of a ride-hailing motorcycle in Jakarta. We rode with several drivers and interviewed them about their platform-based income, use of digital financial services and the impact of COVID-19. Here’s what we learned.
Will Facebook Soon Dominate Digital Payments in India, Indonesia?
As Facebook enters the highly regulated space of digital payments in India and Indonesia, it is partnering with local players to connect its virtual ecosystem with the cash economy, gain access to logistics networks and overcome regulatory hurdles.
How Is the Pandemic Affecting Agents? Here’s What Providers Tell Us
As customers, agents and digital financial services providers adjust to COVID-19, it’s becoming clearer what a resilient agent network looks like. Providers should take note to prepare for future crises.
Indonesia’s Retail Credit Crunch Requires Action to Keep Shelves Full
Indonesians could face empty shelves and a shrinking assortment of products due to credit crunches within consumer goods value chains brought on by COVID-19. Here are three things that can be done to keep the situation from snowballing.
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.
Hiding in Plain Site: Informal E-Commerce Among Women in Asia
Millions of women are buying and selling goods online across Asia — but, at least in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan, they’re not transacting on e-commerce platforms. They’re using social platforms instead, often without digital payments.
E-Commerce Is Taking Off in Rural China: 3 Lessons for Other Countries
China's e-commerce market has $2 trillion in annual sales and is growing as digital services reach rural areas. CGAP visited several villages and spoke with farmers and manufacturers about e-commerce. Here's what we learned.
Bringing Digital Finance Agents to the Last Mile in Indonesia
A recent CGAP publication identifies six principles for viable agent networks in rural areas. In this post, we look at how where Indonesia stands against these principles.
BTPN Wow! Using Open APIs to Bring E-Commerce to Its 250,000 Agents
By connecting its agents to e-commerce platforms, BTPN is giving agents and end-customers in Indonesia more reasons to use its mobile banking service.
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.
Using a Gamified Solution to Incentivize Mobile Money Agents
Empowering mobile money agents to provide exceptional customer service can be challenging. In Indonesia, BTPN has an innovative solution that uses gamification.
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.
China's Super Platforms: The Impact Question
What impact are super platforms having on low-income customers and small businesses? CGAP and Mastercard Foundation traveled to China to see firsthand.