Digital government

The Better Than Cash Journey: Mercy Corps & Women’s World Banking

This is the first in a series of articles on the achievements of several Better Than Cash Alliance members…

Bringing E-money to the Poor: Successes and Failures

This report examines the successful lessons from Kenya, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Thailand case studies of “gazelles", that leapt from limitation to innovation by successfully enabling the deployment of e-money technology.

Fintech for promoting financial inclusion in Vietnam: fact findings and policy implications

This paper analyzes the legal framework and actual operations of fintech in Vietnam, assesses the opportunities and challenges and proposes recommendations for better application of fintech for promoting financial inclusion.

2017 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money

The mobile money industry is now processing a billion dollars a day and generating direct revenues of over $2.4 billion. With 690 million registered accounts worldwide, mobile money has evol…

Building State Capacity: Evidence from Biometric Smartcards in India

NBER Working Paper No. 19999
Issued in March 2014

Summary:

We evaluate the impact of biometrically-authenticated payments infrastructure (“Smartcards”) on beneficiaries of employm…

Closing gender gap through fintech

This ADBI brief discusses policy interventions that can help governments in the Asia Pacific region leverage fintech to close the gender gap in financial inclusion. It calls for ensuring tailored services that promote ease of use, flexible regulation to promote access and active coordination among relevant government ministries to enhance financial education. 

New Technologies in Cash Transfer Programming and Humanitarian Assistance

The research examines the constraints to the uptake of these technologies in humanitarian programming, and has identified barriers to wider adoption of new technology that can be broadly gr…

Beneficiary Perceptions and Attitudes in Fiji: Facilitating Migration from Paper-based to Electronic Benefit Distribution

This study exams the real and perceived constraints social welfare beneficiaries and low income households face in using formal banking services. The study was done to inform the government…

Voices to Choices : Bangladesh's Journey in Women's Economic Empowerment

This book analyzes advances in women’s economic engagement and empowerment in rural and urban Bangladesh.

In South-East Asia, Grab and Gojek bring banking to the masses

Why should retailers shift to digital payments? An average digital payments user of Grab, a ride-hailing service, makes twice as many transactions than those who use cash and is 30% more lik…

Green Finance Opportunities in ASEAN

Users of Ant Financial’s digital finance platform have prevented 150,000 tons of carbon emissions in just nine months by monitoring the environmental friendliness of their potential purchase…

Alipay, WeChat Near $3 Trillion

In China, a Store of the Future—No Checkout, No Staff

China cashing out as mobile payment soars (AFP)

China cashing out as mobile payment soars (The Business Times)

China Breakthroughs: Pay it forward on cashless society

Accelerating winds of change in global payments

The COVID-19 crisis is having a significant and widespread effect on global payments across sectors. The most striking and potentially lasting impact is an accelerating pace of change in the industry.

Finclusion to Fintech: Fintech Product Development for Low-Income Markets

The paper presents detailed insights from 15 years of financial inclusion research to highlight the importance of fintech, including proposing product development ideas for Fintech players, to better serve developing world market.

Alibaba Affiliate Ant Financial Seeks Up to $5 Billion in Funding

Microfinance and Poverty Reduction: Is Social Protection the Missing Link?

The paper highlights that existing literature largely overlooks recent developments in the arena of social protection that are impacting financial needs of the poor and discusses some empirical findings from three Indian states.