Searching: Research & Analysis

Trends in Sharia-Compliant Financial Inclusion

With an estimated 650 million Muslims living on less than $2 a day, finding sustainable Islamic models could help provide financial access to millions of Muslim poor who strive to avoid financial products that do not comply with Sharia.

The Jipange KuSave Experiment in Kenya

This Brief highlights the experience of Jipange KuSave, the mobile version of P9 designed to work over the M-PESA system.

Emerging Perspectives on Youth Savings

This Focus Note examines the role of finance in the lives of low-income youth in developing countries.

Interoperability and the Pathways Towards Inclusive Retail Payments in Pakistan

Interoperability of retail payment instruments is not an objective in its own right; rather it is a means of achieving other desirable objectives.

Advancing Savings Services: Resource Guide for Funders

This resource guide is intended to gather in one source the issues funders need to consider when focusing on the expansion of voluntary savings mobilizations.

Credit Reporting at the Base of the Pyramid

Over the past five years, the microcredit sector has experienced unprecedented growth. The number of borrowers served by microfinance institutions (MFIs) has increased threefold to reach 120 million clients.

Is There a Business Case for Small Savers?

This Brief presents empirical evidence showing that although the savings accounts of small savers are quite costly to provide, there are several important channels through which small savers may be a profitable, or even highly profitable, client segment.

Is There a Business Case for Small Savers?

This study examines quantitatively whether or not small savers contribute to or undermine the sustainability of the MFI.

Microfinance Foreign Exchange Facilities: Performance and Prospects

Foreign capital investment in microfinance has been booming over the past four years. It can bring important benefits to MFIs, but it also comes with foreign exchange risk.

Does Microcredit Really Help Poor People?

Ever since microcredit first began to capture public attention 25 years ago, the usual story line has been that it is a tool of extraordinary power to lift poor people—especially women—out of poverty, by funding their microenterprises and raising their incomes.