Fish bazaar | Photo by Md. Mahabub Hossain Khan, 2016 CGAP Photo Contest Photo by Md. Mahabub Hossain Khan, 2016 CGAP Photo Contest

Business and Markets

Banks going digital. Tech giants integrating payments into their platforms. Off-grid solar companies offering mobile education loans. Every year, the digital economy is spurring new business models and attracting a wider range of players to the financial services industry, including non-traditional actors like fintechs and social networks. This diversity of providers and business models has enormous potential to advance financial inclusion and contribute toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). CGAP’s research sheds light on promising business models that leverage digital technologies to design and deliver financial solutions for low-income customers. Our work also demonstrates how increased connectivity, facilitated by tools such as interoperable payments schemes and open APIs, can make it easier for innovators to offer useful, affordable financial solutions. 

By developing business models that leverage digital technology and by building the right connectivity through strategic partnerships, financial services providers can sustainably reach more low-income consumers with useful financial solutions.  

Latest Research

Publication

Business Intelligence: A Bedrock of Successful Digitization in Microfinance

Microfinance institutions that successfully generate value for their business and customers through digitization anchor these efforts in business intelligence. This Technical Note outlines an approach for improving business intelligence with interventions that require minimum or no investment in technology. CGAP also offers a customer dashboard library with detailed instructions for data teams and a tutorial video.
Publication

Emerging Trends in National Financial Inclusion Strategies that Support Women’s Entrepreneurship

Women entrepreneurs continue to face persistent gender-based barriers that impede their success – such as unequal access to financial accounts, constrained credit, and normative roles that keep women in the role of primary caregivers. Improved financial inclusion can help reduce some of these barriers. This WBL-CGAP Brief presents data collected by the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law (WBL) project on how National Financial Inclusion Strategies can spur policy and regulatory reforms in support of women’s entrepreneurship. 
Publication

Igniting SDG Progress Through Digital Financial Inclusion (2023 edition)

Building on the success of the first edition in 2018, the 2023 edition of Igniting SDG Progress Through Digital Financial Inclusion looks at evidence-based examples for the 13 global goals relevant to digital financial inclusion. This work is a collaboration between the Office of United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA Queen Máxima), Better Than Cash Alliance, the United Nations Capital Development Fund, CGAP and the World Bank. 

Latest Blogs

Blog

G2P Recipients Are Worth Competing For

Open G2P systems have great potential to connect recipients with a host of PSPs from which they can choose to receive their transfers. TymeBank realized the profitability potential of G2P customers and turned it into a core aspect of their strategy.
Blog

How Did Bancolombia Create a Successful Rural Agent Network at Scale?

Bancolombia is a great example of a provider that's been successful in developing rural agent business models at scale, therefore playing a critical role in furthering financial inclusion. Here, we look at the factors that explain their success.
Blog

High Tech, High Touch: Bringing Formal Loans to Rural India

Despite its success developing digital public infrastructure to enable inclusive financial development, India still faces challenges in bringing formal credit to rural and low-income households. A new app supported by CGAP aims to provide a solution.