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Vision and Discipline: How to Innovate for Increased Financial Inclusion
Globally, some two billion working-age adults in emerging markets are excluded from the type of financial intermediation that we take for granted in the developed world: a transaction account to send and receive money; the ability to save for a rainy day; access to credit if needed for bigger, spiky outlays; insurance to help mitigate the financial consequences of an unfortunate event.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: Why India’s Department of Post Should Be Restructured for Financial Inclusion and Efficiency
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently gave a licence to India Post to function as a payments bank. Does it change anything for the people? Post offices in India have already been working as payments banks. Individuals open accounts, deposit and withdraw money by cash or cheques and receive payments through them. All these transactions are meticulously recorded manually in their passbook. Post offices do not provide any loans or carry out any credit transaction. This has been in operation for more than a century and much before the RBI came into existence. So, what would change after the RBI’s licence?
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Financial Inclusion a Theme at MasterCard Investor Day
During MasterCard’s Investment Community Meeting on Wednesday (Sept. 9), the remarks from CEO Ajay Banga and his executive team gave a pretty good indication into how MasterCard views its role in the fast-moving digital payments ecosystem.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Foreign Investment Approved for White-Label ATMs in India – But Hurdles Remain
In order to boost a space that has grown at a snail’s pace, the government on Wednesday approved 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) under the automatic route for non-bank entities that operate cash machines, subject to certain conditions. Wednesday’s move, the government said, will help improve financial inclusion in the country.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Rising Star or Red Flag?: South Africa’s financial inclusion growth raises questions for the entire industry
South Africa placed second in a recent Brookings Institute study comparing financial inclusion in 21 developing countries – surpassed only by Kenya. But though this has led to celebration in some quarters, there’s a troubling aspect to these findings. Illana Melzer argues that the risks of burgeoning financial access and usage are too significant for beneficiaries, development organizations and donors to ignore.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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New Report Examines Payment Aspects of Financial Inclusion
The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and the World Bank Group today issued a consultative report on Payment aspects of financial inclusion. The report examines demand and supply-side factors affecting financial inclusion in the context of payment systems and services, and suggests measures to address these issues.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Different Worlds: Why digital payments should not be regulated as an offshoot of banking
Digital payments is emerging as its own field of expertise - and though the two sectors are often lumped together, it differs substantially from banking. For instance, banks prosper greatly from managing risk and little from network effects, while payments providers typically are just the opposite. This leads to fundamentally different outlooks between the practitioners in each field, and necessitates different regulatory approaches.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Founder of Newly Licensed Payments Bank Paytm Plans to Bring Half a Billion Indian Users to Platform by 2020
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm, was one of the two individuals, besides nine other entities, to be granted a payments bank licence. He believes that being a payments bank, Paytm can now provide its customers with a three-step life cycle comprising pay, buy and save.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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