BSP Holds Digital Payments Leaders Summit as the Country Moves Closer to a Cash-lite Economy

Country Diagnostic: The Philippines (2019 edition)

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Philippine Government recognize digital payments as a policy priority to enable Filipinos to seize the opportunities of the digital revolution.

The International Labour Organization commits to expanding the use of responsible digital payments to advance decent work

New partnership will result in promoting digital payments as an important tool to increase security, financial inclusion and economic opportunities in the workplace.

In Bangladesh, key public and private sector actors commit to scaling digital wages across garment sector

Dhaka, November 20, 2019 - Media release by Government of Bangladesh: Building on what has been achieved so far, the government and the private sector have committed to working together to…

Call to action: Digitizing workers’ payments in the garment sector in Bangladesh

Leading brands call on other companies and suppliers in Bangladesh to grasp the opportunity to drive inclusion, efficiency, and transparency through wage digitization…

Bangladesh Digital Wages Summit

Scaling Digital Wages: An Opportunity for Garment Employees and Manufacturers…

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.

Southeast Asia internet economy hits $100 billion

The Bain & Company report shows that two Alliance members, Indonesia and Vietnam, are growing the fastest and the adoption of digital payments in the region is expected to cross $1 trillion by 2025.

New insights into inclusion-focused fintech 

The recently launched Inclusive Fintech 50 whitepaper looks at how early-stage fintechs are working on financial inclusion. Findings reveal that “funding is concentrated in several notable ways, innovation is not limited to technology and common standards are needed to bring clarity to the field.”

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.

Senegal: tech helps boost access to health to leave poverty behind

This blog post was originally published in the Action 2030 Blog on unsdg.un.org.

Opportunities for digital in Pakistan 

GSMA report estimates that mobile phone ecosystem contributes around $16.7 billion to the Pakistani economy. To enhance the impact of mobile-enabled digital transformation, it calls for improving digital financial inclusion and taking a whole of government approach to development.

Connection between financial innovation and inclusion

This paper explores the nexus between financial inclusion and financial innovation by looking at data from 6 South Asian countries - including 4 Alliance members.

Latest trends in the field of "suptech"

This paper examines latest trends in suptech initiatives by looking at the work of 39 financial authorities globally.

Fostering digital payments and fintech development 

This ADBI working paper discusses measures to foster digital financial innovation in Indonesia.

How to put national digital agenda in action

Cross-agency collaboration, national and digital identity and having common templates and taxonomies in place can help governments on their digital journeys. Read the new Citi publication on digitizing governments that also features case studies from Pakistan and India.

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. 

Youth, entrepreneurship and digital financial inclusion

New World Bank Findex note discusses the many ways in which young people in Sub-Saharan Africa are using formal financial services for entrepreneurship.

Strategies for technology-enabled finclusion in APEC 

New APEC synthesis report collates and distills inputs from APEC member economies on their challenges, responses, and capacity building needs with respect to financial inclusion and consumer protection.

Mobile money spreads in Asia

Over the past five years, mobile money has gained traction in South Asia, which is experiencing an average annual growth rate of 46 percent in mobile money accounts—the highest across all regions. For more details check out IMF’s 2019 Financial Access Survey that was released last week