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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Opening new payment gateways for merchants presents risks but much greater opportunities. Striking the right balance between fostering innovative services and managing risk is crucial.
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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 solve the challenges in ensuring all garment factories pay their workers digitally. The decision came from the Bangladesh Digital Wages Summit, which convened on 20 November in Dhaka.
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.
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
The top barriers to mobile ownership in Asia are literacy and skills and affordability, with family disapproval also featuring as a major barrier in parts of South Asia. Read GSMA's Mobile Gender Gap-Asia report for more details.
New IMF paper outlines policy strategies to help promote financial inclusion through fintechs in the Pacific Island countries. It calls on governments to close regulatory gaps and enhance digital and financial literacy while urging fintechs to take a regional approach to overcome scalability constraints.
Blockchain Series: Blog 4
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.
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 likely to use several of Grab's services.
The article advances the argument that effective participation of social grant beneficiaries in the financial services sector can be realized if personal data protection measures are taken seriously.
This report lays out the principles for a new digital economy for MENA that embraces innovation and entrepreneurship, youth and women economic empowerment, rekindling the role of State, etc.
Transportation Series: Blog 1 (Introduction)
Transportation Series: Blog 2
Transportation Series: Blog 3
Transportation Series: Blog 4
New data gathered from the Higg Index from 3,000 factories in 58 countries
As world leaders met at the U.N. General Assembly in New York last week, many discussions focused on how to ignite greater progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Increasingly, digital financial inclusion is emerging as a key answer.
A third of adults struggle to get by without basic financial services to protect against hardship and save for the future. Ruth Goodwin-Groen, of the UN-based Better Than Cash Alliance, explains why moving from cash to digital payments can help reduce poverty and drive inclusive growth.
Finance Ministers of the economies of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) endorsed the new Better Than Cash Alliance report on the role of digital payments in sustainable agriculture on 21st October, in Viet Nam.