Research & Analysis

The Impact of Smartphones on Financial Inclusion

Regulatory Framework for DFS in Côte d’Ivoire

This diagnostic provides an analysis of the regulatory framework for DFS in Côte d’Ivoire, including its coverage, conducive features, and gaps and obstacles. The paper also offers recommendations on how to address these issues.

Insights from the Household Survey in Nigeria

National Survey and Segmentation of Smallholder Households in Nigeria

This survey explores the agricultural and non-agricultural activities, financial practices and interests, and challenges and aspirations of over 3,300 smallholder families throughout Nigeria.

Measuring Market Development

Monitoring and evaluation is an increasingly prominent aspect of development programs. This Handbook guides funders and their implementing partners on how to effectively measure results of financial inclusion programs that apply a systemic approach.

Applying the RIA Lite Methodology: An Example from Pakistan

This study looks at Pakistan’s nearly decade-old experience with regulating digital financial services (referred in the local context as branchless banking) as a test case for the RIA Lite methodology,

Regulatory Sandboxes and Financial Inclusion

Regulatory sandboxes may enable financial innovations that benefit excluded and underserved customers. In most cases, a regulatory sandbox is a framework set up by a financial sector regulator to allow small-scale, live testing of innovations by private firms in a controlled environment under the regulator’s supervision.

Merchant Payments: Loyalty Playbook

Digitizing Retail Payments: Building a Successful Loyalty Model

Banking in the M-PESA Age

This Working Paper explores three approaches banks in Kenya have used to respond to mobile money. While nonbank mobile financial services can fundamentally reshape the financial sector in a developing market, as they have clearly done in Kenya, mobile services need not represent an existential threat to the traditional banking industry.