Financial services

Distributing Production: Can Distributed Ledgers Fuel a New Wave of Supply-Chain Innovation?

Blockchain Series: Blog 5

Paying Across Borders: Can Distributed Ledgers Bring Us Closer Together?

Blockchain Series: Blog 6

Public Financial Management and the Digitalization of Payments

Joint report by the Better Than Cash Alliance, the Center for Global Development, and the Overseas Development Institute, building on work with the International Monetary Fund in 2017.

In the IMF’s Fight Against Corruption, Digital Payments are a Powerful Weapon

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde is to be applauded for her recent leadership in the fight against corruption, and her recognition that there is an increasingly limited role for cash …

Capturing Our Impact: Harnessing Innovation for Financial Inclusion

This World Bank e-book features stories, videos, and pictures that illustrate how digital innovation not only enables access to financial services for low-income people but also serves as an enabler for delivering clean water, solar energy, education, and more.

A Regulatory Diagnostic Toolkit for Digital Financial Services in Emerging Markets Toolkit

This University of New South Wales paper proposes a framework – a Regulatory Diagnostic Toolkit (RDT) – designed to support financial regulators in emerging markets to advance their regulatory regimes for DFS.

Unravelling the web of inclusion

In this report, Mastercard combines insights from industry players and shares 5 ‘markers’ to help with strategies to promote adoption of formal financial services.

Mexican customers want their financial service providers to offer convenience

2 out of 3 Mexicans now have access to formal financial products yet most of them still prefer cash. This insights2impact report suggests that to sway consumers, you have to provide them with the same convenience, flexibility, and sense of belonging as informal and social alternatives.

Celebrating Women’s Day!

This International Women’s Day, Marks & Spencer (M&S) is joining our Alliance to help advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

Marks & Spencer Joins the Better Than Cash Alliance on International Women’s Day

This International Women’s Day, Marks & Spencer (M&S) is joining the Better Than Cash Alliance to help advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

Mexico Proves Bill & Melinda Right on Gender Data

Over 7.3 million women gained access to financial products from 2012 to 2018 due to policies informed by sex-disaggregated data. Read the CG Dev blog on why robust gender data is crucial for…

GSMA: The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2019

This report reveals how the mobile gender gap is changing in low- and middle-income countries, as well as ranking the factors preventing equal mobile ownership and mobile internet use for me…

The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2019

Is cash still relevant?

2018 highlights!

Here are highlights on how our global partnership ignited progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals through shifting to digital payments.

Cash Digitization: UN Collaboration, Coordination, and Harmonization Opportunities

New digitization study recommends strengthening cash assistance collaboration across UN agencies & partners, to improve coordination and harmonization.

Mobile Technology and Financial Service Bundling: A Structural Estimation of Mobile Money

The paper examines the effects of mobile money as financial technology and service innovation on consumer demand, connecting the effects to the fast evolving mobile technologies (from 1G to 4G).

New Key to Help Unlock the Power of Digital Payments

Across the global policy community, the jury is now in about the power of digital payments to drive financial inclusion, particularly for women and the poor; improve efficiency and transpare…

Opinion: 3 unexpected solutions for greater climate action

An Introduction to Digital Financial Services (DFS)

Digital Financial Services (DFS) is a relatively new, low-cost means of digital access to transactional financial services. Often termed ‘mobile money’ or ‘mobile financial services,’ DFS is…