Managing digital money

This editorial highlights the significance of digital money as a transformational innovation and emphasizes that banks and financial institutions need to develop strategies to respond to opportunities and threats of digital money.

Is mobile payment still relevant in the fintech era?

This study analyzes whether mobile payments are still relevant for the fintech industry by comparing three mobile payment projects – Oi Paggo in Brazil, TCASH in Indonesia, and M-PESA in Kenya.

Inclusive Growth Through Branchless Banking: A Review of Agent Banking and Its Impact

The paper explores the opportunities to overcome barriers to financial access in Bangladesh through branchless banking and emphasis that financial inclusion and inclusive growth could be advanced through existing work by Bangladesh bank on favorable agent banking policies

Handbook of blockchain, digital finance, and inclusion: cryptocurrency, fintech, insurtech, regulation, Chinatech, mobile security, and distributed ledger

The handbook emphasizes the financial opportunities made possible by digital banking, such as financial inclusion and impact investing and summaries standard models of various new technologies.

Growth of mobile financial services key learnings from literature, industry analysis and cases

This paper includes an extensive literature review on Mobile financial Services (MFS)and provides an overview of existing MFS landscape.

Perspectives from SME banking leaders

IFC report aggregates responses from 114 SME banking executives serving more than 17.5 million small businesses.

Global evidence on contribution of MSMEs

New ILO study reveals seven in 10 workers are self-employed or in small businesses. The study also finds that an average of 62% of employment (in the 99 countries studied) is in the informal sector. It calls for creating an enabling environment for these businesses and supporting them through access to finance and digital infrastructure.

Understanding merchant payments landscape 

A new Karandaaz study shows that around 95% of merchants in Pakistan do not accept digital payments. To promote adoption, it calls for creating awareness among users, better infrastructure, interoperability and reliability of services.

How to improve adoption among merchants

This study finds that perceived value addition for the customers and usefulness of technology are important determinants of adoption of mobile wallet technology among merchants. 

How mobile phones improve market efficiency?

This paper finds that mobile phone network rollout, that allowed traders better access to market information, led to a 10-13% reduction in price dispersion of maize crop.

Prerequisites to digitizing the agricultural last mile

Mobile-delivered economic ID for inclusion of SMEs

Unregistered SMEs account for 65% of Nigeria's GDP. Most of them often struggle to demonstrate their personal and business credentials to service providers and customers. This GSMA research finds that there is a need for new approaches to identity and mobile-delivered ‘economic ID’ solution holds promise.

The Effect of Payment Choices on Online Retail: Evidence from the 2016 Indian Demonetization

This Harvard Business School paper concludes that consumers who switch to digital payments maintain their purchase frequency but spend more and are less likely to return their purchases.

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.

How one platform connects cities and boosts small businesses

How can platform approaches drive the digitization of cities? Learn how CIVICO and Accion are helping customers and small businesses, in Bogota, Mexico City, and Santiago, connect and transact.

Using digital tools to grow africulture and financial inclusion in Ethiopia

Ethiopia has a sole mobile network provider and a banking sector that is closed to foreign ownership. Does that make it easy for the government to take a rural-first approach to digitization? Learn about it more in this USAIDFeed The Future brief that also mentions the Alliance.

Digitizing merchant payments in Bangladesh

Better placement of marketing materials can help boost usage of digital payments in small merchants. What are some other ways to drive usage? Read this IFC report that is based on feedback and learnings from early adopters of bKash in Bangladesh.

Cash usage behaviour and its implication for digital payments: A case of Ghana and Nigeria's smallholder cassava value chain

Leveraging Digital Financial Solutions to Promote Formal Business Participation

This paper explores economic informality and how it relates to digital financial inclusion. It focuses specifically on the potential role that digital financial services–including those accessed through mobile phones and the internet can play in encouraging businesses to formalize their operations.

What explains low adoption of digital payment technologies? Evidence from small-scale merchants in Jaipur, India