The Better Than Cash Alliance is a partnership of governments, companies, and international organizations that accelerates the transition from cash to digital payments in order to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
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This report undertakes a systematic review of key literature and identifies areas for further research and opportunities in the field of gender and financial inclusion, particularly digital financial inclusion.
This study designs business models for electronic payment services, utilizing the principle of branchless banking and reviewing relevant aspects of IT risk management, for rural area communities in Indonesia.
Based on a sample of 62 developing countries, the paper provides empirical analysis showing increase in the use of FinTech has a positive effect on the level of financial inclusion, which in turn advance sustainable economic development.
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…
This chapter provides an overview of financial inclusion around the world and discusses the empirical evidence on how the use of formal financial services significantly contribute to inclusive growth and economic development.
This paper provides examples of how digitization in Kenya has supported the economy via a retail electronic payments system, financial inclusion, increased financial sector vibrancy, and pushed GDP growth with it.
The paper provides an extensive literature review of the existing global MFS industrya and discusses key learning and recommendations based on insights from ‘Easypaisa’ in Pakistan.
Financial Times' special report discusses how the private sector, including Mastercard, and the government are joining forces to promote digital payments in the economy, especially by digiti…
What comes after unconditional cash transfers? Does the inclusion of some form of graduation programs offer a more sustainable solution to poverty? Read this blog to learn more about the deb…
This paper follows a quasi-experimental research design to assess the impact of the electronic payment system of Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera (POP) programme.
This paper investigates the impact of mobile financial services - MFS (mobile money, and mobile credit and savings) on the informal sector using data from 101 emerging and developing countries over the period 2000-15.
This working paper finds that the introduction of payroll accounts among largely unbanked factory workers in Bangladesh led to increased account use and consumer learning.
This paper explores factors that have driven the adoption of digital payments in India by beneficiaries of PMGKY, the large-scale COVID-19 relief program.
Distributing benefits, such as child support, unemployment and disability assistance, has been transformed by the use of prepaid cards. Instead of mailing paper checks, 40 states now use Vis…
Conditional and unconditional cash transfers have been effective in improving development outcomes in a variety of contexts, yet the costs of these programs to program recipients and impleme…
The largest social program in Mexico, Oportunidades, distributes benefits to 6.5 million people. The government-owned Bank of National Savings and Financial Services (Bansefi) was looking fo…
This focus note reviews early lessons for NGOs from the field. It explores three central questions: Does initial evidence support the notion that mobile money is a cheaper, faster, and more …
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…
Aadhaar, India’s program to provide a unique identity number for every resident, is the largest biometric identification program in the world. Launched in 2008, the program has created biome…
NBER Working Paper No. 19999 Issued in March 2014
We evaluate the impact of biometrically-authenticated payments infrastructure (“Smartcards”) on beneficiaries of employm…