About 2.7bn people in the world rely on cash, physical assets and informal services to manage their financial lives. This could change thanks to initiatives encouraged by the G20, such as the guidance paper on financial inclusion released last June by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The...

Payments are the connective tissue of an economic system. They enable people to buy goods, purchase water and electricity, and send money to friends, family, and business partners. They enable governments to collect taxes and disburse social payments. And they enable suppliers to collect...

This report contains an initial evaluation of the opportunities for spreading financial services through business networks in local communities across sub-Saharan Africa. The central premise is that small, local business that are able to establish a data-rich, trusted relationship with financial...

This paper outlines the role of mobile phones in addressing the financial inclusion gap in developing countries and the value of retail payments in jump-starting mobile schemes. It then lays four key challenges in the evolution of mobile money schemes from pure payment mechanisms to vehicles for...

In India, the business case of the BC model is yet unclear. The main limiting factor is very low customer activity rates. Low usage is compounded by the prevalence of unduly low pricing models on the basic savings proposition, which is based on a perception that customers have low willingness to...

This paper provides an overview of the potential for and constraints to using broadband channels and applications to increase financial inclusion globally and specifically in Latin America. We review ten different financial service opportunity areas, including savings services with enhanced...