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Microfinance, E-Commerce, Big Data and China: The Alibaba Story

China's Alibaba Group is not only the world's largest e-commerce company, but it is also an innovator in microfinance. Alibaba leverages big data to link rural villages with the goods, sales channels and financial services they need to grow their businesses.

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.

Understanding Microcredit Interest Rates in East Asia

While interest rates from MFIs are higher than state banks in EAP, with hundreds of millions of poor people without formal access, there is room for MFIs to expand as their services are often superior to other alternatives.

China – The Future Leader in Branchless Banking for the Poor?

A look at the world's biggest market for branchless banking.

Smart Policy: Why Islamic Banks Matter in Indonesia

With financing a key need for millions of micro to mid-sized entrepreneurs, empowering Islamic financial service providers to reach more clients is not only good for business. It’s smart policy.

Financial Inclusion Highlights From China And Myanmar

In my (Chinese) New Year blog post of 2012, I predicted significant changes during the year of the dragon. I was not disappointed for sure. From a personal perspective I moved back to East Asia after several years of absence, and it was hard to recognize the region given the pace of development. In the last ten years poverty in East Asia has fallen from close to 50% down to 35% and economic growth has been relatively high compared with the rest of the world. Some of the most notable change has taken place in China, and in Myanmar more recently.

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.

Does Client Protection Matter to Clients?

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

Can Myanmar Leapfrog Towards Financial Inclusion?

After years of isolation, the country is finally opening itself up as can be seen by the number of international investors stepping at the door.

Banking Services Transforming A Town in the Amazon

What do the inhabitants of this small town of 15,000 people (30,000 including surrounding communities) in the Amazon need banking services for?

The Year of the Dragon: More Innovation for Financial Inclusion?

In spite of ongoing reforms, governments exert high levels of controls on the financial sector in East Asia.

“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.

Opportunities for a Big Leap for Financial Inclusion in Vietnam?

For the last fifteen years, microfinance experts have been watching Vietnam and identified it as a market that with the right policy opening has great potential.

Commercial Investment Landscape in Branchless Banking

This blog post summarizes a quick review of commercial investments in mobile financial services and branchless banking. We focused our review on equity deals between 2005 and 2010 involving mobile payment companies, agent companies, payment platforms and others providers that we knew were targeting the financially excluded in developing countries.

So How Exactly Do We Regulate Microfinance?

When it comes to prudential regulation – or safeguarding deposits – the stakes are particularly high. In microfinance, most MFIs aren’t big enough to threaten the health of the financial systems they’re part of if they run into trouble.