Research & Analysis

TymeBank Case Study: The Customer Impact of Inclusive Digital Banking

As a fully digital retail bank in South Africa, TymeBank has created a suite of basic products that cater to the essential financial needs of low-income rural customers.

Digital Banks: How Can They be Regulated to Deepen Financial Inclusion?

This reading deck describes three regulatory approaches used by policy-makers to regulate digital banks. It has a focus on harnessing the potential of digital banks to bring welcome competition and innovation to the banking sector and advance financial inclusion.

Financial Solutions for Women in Rural and Agricultural Livelihoods

This deck synthesizes CGAP research and insights on the constraints faced by women in rural and agricultural livelihoods (WIRAL) and the opportunities for service providers and funders to add value to their lives and livelihoods.

The Great Unbundling: How Technology Is Making Financial Services Modular and What It Means for Inclusion

Financial products and processes are being unbundled, reassembled, and embedded in entirely new ways that may change the very nature of banking. What does this mean for financial inclusion?

How Fintech Is Unbundling Banking And What That Means For Financial Inclusion

A 2-minute video that illustrates new entries to the financial services sector - such as fintechs- can lower costs, bring higher quality services, and help reach previously underserved or unserved people.

Addressing Gender Norms to Increase Financial Inclusion: Designing for Impact

To advance women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment, funders and market facilitators need to acknowledge gender norms and understand how they limit women’s ability to access, use, and benefit from financial services.

Digitization in Microfinance: Case Studies of Pathways to Success

This Working Paper takes a unique look at microfinance institution innovation with digital technologies by featuring case studies on five MFIs that successfully created measurable customer and business value through digitization:

Microfinance Solvency and COVID-19: A Call for Coordination

This COVID-19 Briefing looks specifically at how to address the solvency risks facing medium and small microfinance providers, which often reach into communities and geographic areas that are not served by larger lenders.

Business Her Own Way: Creating Livelihoods Through Informal Online Commerce

This Focus Note outlines the characteristics of IOC, maps the personas of the women who engage in it, and provides guidance to funders looking to support women to generate livelihoods through IOC.

Snapshots: MFIs During the COVID-19 Crisis

CGAP and Symbiotics analyze COVID-19's impact on the performance of the more than 300 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Symbiotics global portfolio, in this series of brief papers published between November 2020 and July 2021.