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NexThought Monday – Money Stories: What if financial products could accommodate the tales we tell ourselves?
We constantly create stories about ourselves and our experiences to help us make sense of the world. These stories even help us manage our finances. But by and large, financial institutions haven’t leveraged the power of users’ stories, and this contributes to some of the challenges they’ve faced in serving low-income customers.
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Banking by Boat Spells New Client Growth for Indonesia’s Bank Rakyat
The absence of cash machines on many of Indonesia’s Spice Islands, where cloves and nutmeg once made sultans and European explorers wealthy, means banking is often done on boats that can carry automated teller machines.
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Poor service: Tiny loans are getting more expensive
INTEREST on the minuscule loans made by microfinance outfits has always been high, but over the past few years it has become even higher. A recent paper, using data on over 1,500 microfinance institutions (MFIs) from around the world, shows that for the smallest loans, typically less than $150, the average rate climbed steadily from 30% in 2004 to 35% in 2011.*
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Myanmar gets first national mobile money service
Myanmar Mobile Money has launched a range of services including P2P funds transfer via mobile phones as it seeks to exploit what is a prime market with an underdeveloped financial sector.
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In India, Nachiket Mor defends the need for specialized banks
Nachiket Mor, Chairman of the RBI's committee on financial inclusion, strongly defended the need to have specialised banks compared to new full service banks. He said that the idea of financial inclusion will be better served in the medium term if specialised banks such as payments only banks and lending only banks are allowed to flourish.
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OPINION: Branches Will Never Result In 100% Financial Inclusion in India
India has just 110 branches per million persons, compared with the USA which has more than 300 branches per million persons, and Spain which has an incredible 900 branches per million persons, with the next nearest in the EU being Italy with 650/mm.
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Kids and Money: Watch the replay of our Google Hangout with Jeroo Billimoria, founder of Child and Youth Finance International (and eight other social enterprises)
Pioneering social entrepreneur Jeroo Billimoria is the founder of several award-winning international NGOs, and is perhaps best known for her work promoting financial capability among young people. She joined NextBillion Financial Innovation via Google Hangouts for a fascinating Q&A.
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- Education
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OPINION: Payment banks could promote financial inclusion in India
Payment banks will be a bank in every respect except that it can’t lend, thus removing the risk of leverage.
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