Apexes are an important source of local funding for microfinance-and even more so since the global financial crisis. Well over US$2 billion per year of public money is being disbursed globally to microfinance through apex funds or local wholesale facilities. The funds are then disbursed by...

An increasing number of countries are developing national microfinance strategies, bringing the topic to the forefront of national development priorities. Over 30 countries, most in Africa, now have such strategies. This trend appears to be fueled by microfinance's heightened visibility and new...

The evidence on demand for sharia-compliant financial services is mixed. On the one hand, IFC-funded studies showed relatively high demand, while results from Findex showed that financial exclusion due to religious reasons was minimal (Demirguc-Kunt, Klapper, and Randall 2013). One of the...

As existing and trusted institutions with large branch networks reaching rural areas, Arab postal networks have the potential to be powerful tools in the fight for greater financial inclusion in the Arab world. Beyond a few success stories, however, the Arab world has so far not capitalized on...

People at the very bottom of the economic ladder are often excluded, or exclude themselves, from microfinance. Their income is usually too low and unreliable to permit repayment of loans or investment in anything but basic food consumption. In some countries the very poor are served by safety...

People at the very bottom of the economic ladder are often excluded, or exclude themselves, from microfinance. Their income is usually too low and unreliable to permit repayment of loans or investment in anything but basic food consumption. In some countries the very poor are served by safety...