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> Posted by Joy Kim, Financial Inclusion Analyst, MIX
Figure 1 (click to enlarge)
Today we launched the Senegal Financial Inclusion Workbook 2.0. Since its first iteration in 2013, MIX added a significant number of additional datasets at a more granular level: The total number of financial access points amassed increased from 1,903 to 10,155. Most of the datasets can now be inspected at the commune level, an important change from the initial workbook where the datasets were only displayed at the region level. In addition, we were able to map microfinance correspondents that did not exist back in 2013.
Senegal Makes Significant Progress in a Few Short Years
Since March 2012, when Senegal’s Ministry of Economics and Finance signed the Maya Declaration, it has introduced greater regulatory oversight of the microfinance industry. At the same time, the agency has helped create an enabling environment for the provision of digital financial services. Efforts to improve data and measurement, consumer protection, and implementation of a national financial inclusion strategy are ongoing. As a first step in implementing a national financial inclusion strategy, the Microfinance Branch (DMF) of the Senegalese Ministry in charge of Microfinance and Solidarity together with the National Agency of Statistics and Demography (ANSD) launched a national survey on financial inclusion in January of 2015. The survey is intended to investigate physical access to financial services, users of formal and informal services, financial needs of households, and more.
> Posted by Hannah Sherman, Project Associate, CFI
Last month, CFI hosted the first-ever FI2020 Week, a week of global conversation to advance financial inclusion. We are pleased to announce that the week was a success, including 34 partners, over 300 participating organizations, and over 700 participants in hosted conversations, and resulting in over 100 calls to action. A new Financial Inclusion 2020 e-magazine sums up the week, with a focus on event highlights, social media activity, and calls to action.
As we synthesized the many conversations across the globe in this e-magazine, we found a few themes emerging. First and foremost, there was global recognition of the role that partnerships play in moving forward financial inclusion. Participants discussed partnerships between government institutions, between the public and private sector, between researchers and providers, between banks and fintech companies, and more as essential to reaching financial inclusion. Second, there continued to be enthusiasm about the role that new technology plays and will continue to play in accelerating financial inclusion. Finally, and encouragingly, a number of conversations underscored the importance of financial capability-building, with a focus on how clients better understand their financial lives and make more healthy financial decisions as an important part of inclusion.
> Posted by Sonja E. Kelly, Fellow, CFI
I want to let you in on a secret: the best part of the Global Microscope 2015 is a hidden gem. It’s called the Microscope Benchmarking Model (admittedly it might benefit from a better name), and it provides a user-friendly deep-dive into each country and indicator. With this tool, you can go beyond the report, with insights on questions that we may have neglected to cover in the narrative. And you can slice and dice the data to your heart’s content.
For example, where is the best place to be an insurance provider if you want to work with low-income populations? It’s India, actually, with Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, and the Philippines following. With two quick steps, the tool produced this map for me (click to enlarge):
The countries colored in red—including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Paraguay, and Tajikistan—are the worst places to be an insurance provider working with low-income populations.
So why is India the best?
> Posted by Sonja E. Kelly, Fellow, CFI
Today, on the release of the Global Microscope 2015, we are celebrating some good news: the environment for financial inclusion is improving worldwide. Most of the 55 countries surveyed by the publication increased their scores, which measure the enabling environment for financial inclusion. In addition to an overall increase, we noticed a few particular exciting success stories as certain countries have made significant improvements to their policy and regulatory environments. It’s clear that 2015 was a year of progress, and we expect that the benefits of improved policy, regulation, and infrastructure will have an impact on the lives of clients for years to come.
For the second year in a row, the Global Microscope features an expanded scope that focuses on the overall environment for financial inclusion. The Center for Financial Inclusion has played a critical role in this shift, improving on the methodology and expanding the number of countries that the publication assesses.
Three countries—Peru, Colombia, and the Philippines—continue to set the standard for the environment for financial inclusion, topping the list for the second year in a row. There were some surprises in the top 10, however. India’s score increased by 10 points between 2014 and 2015, thanks to some very dramatic changes in the past year which pulled it into the fourth position, such as the new licenses for payment banks and small finance banks. Other countries in the top 10 that improved their scores include Pakistan, Tanzania, and Ghana. Ghana saw the most dramatic rise among this group, with a seven-point jump. Four distinct regions—Latin America and the Caribbean, East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa—are represented in the top 10 countries.
> Posted by Jessie Fisher and Robyn Robertson, Good Return
Globally 1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty, with women and girls disproportionately affected. Increasing access to technology creates opportunities in education, expanded informational resources, employment, entrepreneurship, and financial services – all of which can help break the cycle of poverty.
These are not new or debated ideas. However, in the realm of financial services, in order to harness advancements in technology and achieve greater and more meaningful inclusion of women, we still need to better understand their preferences and behaviors and the social context they inhabit.
This is where quality gender-based data, which has almost entirely been lacking in financial inclusion, plays a key role.
For example, to ensure we understand a new market, we must ask ourselves questions like: Have we invested the time and resources needed to meaningfully engage with both men and women? Have we considered the time needed to build trust in these communities (especially if they have had disappointing experiences with other organizations in the past)?
Satisfying such considerations isn’t simple or easy. We may also need to travel further to reach women clients, and provide safe spaces for them to speak openly about their lives and the things they would like to change.
> Posted by Susy Cheston, Senior Advisor, CFI
Of the 700 million new accounts that the Global Findex reports were opened from 2011 to 2014:
- Banks and other financial institutions accounted for 550 million;
- Mobile network operators accounted for 100-240 million, depending on your source and methodology;
- Microfinance institutions accounted for 50 million.
These numbers are rough and involve some overlap—but they point to the continued importance of commercial banks in financial inclusion. Put another way, of the 3.2 billion accounts reported in the 2014 Findex, 3.1 billion were accounts with a financial institution.
That’s why I was so interested in hearing what the commercial bankers had to say at an Institute of International Finance (IIF) roundtable held in Lima on October 9 alongside the International Monetary Fund (IMF) / World Bank meetings. The strategies they discussed for reaching the BoP were not new to those immersed in the financial inclusion world, but it was heartening to hear their commitment to putting those strategies into operation. Here are a few of the points from the discussion:
Use data to understand customers. Now more than ever, there is a wealth of available data to help us better understand customers at the base of the pyramid. These new customer insights are opening up new practices – from on-boarding, to cross-selling, to risk management. Data analytics can also enable cost reductions on credit and insurance. For example, ecommerce platforms for small manufacturers can facilitate credit offers and then arrange for automatic repayment from the ecommerce activity itself. This innovative use of data allows financing at half the cost.
> Posted by Center Staff
Next week, CFI will launch the first-ever FI2020 Week. From November 2-6, 2015, over 25 partners across the globe will organize conversations exploring the most important steps to achieving financial inclusion.
FI2020 Week will bring together diverse stakeholders to conduct interactive and participatory events, each of which will produce calls to action. The range of participants will include banks, insurance companies, payment companies, telecommunication companies, policymakers, regulators, NGOs, microfinance institutions, investors, financial inclusion support organizations, financial capability experts, and fintech companies, from around the world. All of these participants will focus on the question, “What is an important action needed in your country (or industry segment) to advance financial inclusion?”
We want YOU to join us! Throughout the week, many FI2020 Week partners will hold webinars – an opportunity for those who will not be attending in-person FI2020 Week events to participate in a variety of interesting conversations. The webinars cover a full range of topics, from client protection in mobile money use, to incorporating financial capability into product design. Check them out below and register now to join hundreds of people around the world in FI2020 Week.
And for more information, check out our Storify feed of social media and blog postings on the FI2020 Week website here and follow #FI2020 on Twitter for the latest updates.
Client Protection and Technology: The GSMA Code of Conduct for Mobile Money Providers
Hosted by: GSMA
Date: November 4, 2015
Time: 9:00 am – 10:00 am EST
This session will discuss how the GSMA – the global association for mobile network operators – is working with its members to ensure that mobile money services are safe, reliable, and secure, and that customers are treated fairly. The Code of Conduct for Mobile Money Providers includes eight high-level principles addressing topics such as safeguarding customer funds, AML/CFT, training and monitoring of staff and agents, reliable service provision, security, and fair treatment of customers. This session will provide a brief background to the Code of Conduct initiative and outline the plan for implementation of the Code. It will be useful for regulators, financial inclusion specialists, consumer protection advocates, and any other stakeholders who are interested in understanding what mobile operators are doing to ensure the safety, reliability, and fairness of mobile money services.
Register now!
> Posted by David Tuesta, BBVA, and Sonja E. Kelly, CFI
A Spanish-language version of this post follows the English-language version.
YOU are a beneficiary of data. The materials in those shoes you are wearing were chosen over other materials because of data on cost, durability, and consumer opinion. When you go to the supermarket, you can easily find the chocolate bars because data told company marketers that if the chocolate bars are at the front of the store, consumers will be more likely to buy them. When you use public transportation, the fare you pay is based on data on the cost of the system and estimates of how many riders there will be.
Some people think data is boring. For those people, we say “tough luck.” Data is inevitable. Data provides the information on which economic decisions are based. More data provides more knowledge, information and transparency, helping all economic agents make better decisions, and through this, increasing society`s welfare.
It is no wonder, therefore, that data is critical for financial inclusion, as the financial services industry expands its focus toward harder to reach and lower income populations. The data we have on consumers helps to better understand how quickly financial inclusion is catching on and to tool financial services products appropriately to different market segments. Data at higher levels helps too: information about financial services providers is essential for regulators to monitor the market. Data matters, and it will shape the path of financial inclusion.
Last month at the invitation and of the Inter-American Development Bank we met at the IDB’s Washington, D.C. headquarters with a group of people from many institutions across the financial services industry from large international organizations to small research institutions to global banks to take stock of what data is out there, how much information could be available, how it can best be used, and how data efforts can be improved. There have been strong efforts to improve data from the demand side (customers), such as the Global Findex. Despite many data collection initiatives on the supply side (providers), there are still gaps that could be important for improving and evaluating convenience and
accessibility of potential financial services for those who are unbanked.
Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Joy Kim, Financial Inclusion Analyst, MIX
What’s better than reading about data? Visualizing it! Pardon us, then, as we offer a few words on CFI and MIX’s new FI2020 Inclusion Visualizer, a powerful tool to manipulate, visualize, and download images of data related to financial inclusion.
The Inclusion Visualizer, harnessing publicly available data from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Economist Intelligence Unit, and others, allows users to explore financial inclusion topics across country, region, and income levels. For the adventurous, users are able to customize the range of visualized categories and sub-categories. For example, do you want to know what percent of women with a primary school education or less have their own account at a financial institution? The Visualizer also offers targeted navigation options that focus on key areas, like the financial inclusion infrastructure, the policy environment, and technology.
How to Get the Most Out of the FI2020 Inclusion Visualizer
To get a better understanding of the landscape of financial inclusion around the globe, we suggest you begin by exploring Sections 1A through 1F. One particularly interesting section is Account Ownership (IC) because this metric is, perhaps, the simplest method for measuring financial access. Financial Inclusion Over Time (1B) illustrates changes not only in account ownership, but also with financial activities related to credit, savings, withdrawals, and deposits. As you’ll see, the world has seen growth in all of these activities with the exceptions of withdrawals and deposits, which implies that greater effort is needed on a global scale to increase usage of accounts.
> Posted by Susy Cheston, Senior Advisor, CFI
Data analytics is a big story these days, and we’re excited about its potential. In fact, we discuss its promise in the Technology, Addressing Customer Needs, and Credit Reporting sections of the FI2020 Progress Report. In terms of credit reporting, data analytics start-ups claim that their algorithms can cull information from Internet searches, social media, mobile apps, and so on to identify creditworthy people who might otherwise be left out of the system.
GO Finance, operating in Tanzania, and Konfio, in Mexico, are online lenders whose models are based on data analytics. GO Finance leverages digital data and mobile money channels to underwrite and manage loans for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly targeting farmer cooperatives and others in the agricultural value chain. Konfio uses credit algorithms based on alternative data to help micro and small businesses obtain working capital loans. Konfio’s digital platform allows for low-cost customer acquisition and rapid credit assessment, enabling the company to offer lower rates. Demyst Data, by contrast, partners with financial institutions – global banks, online lenders, and card issuers. It analyzes online, social, and internal data to help its partners lend to thin-file, underbanked customers. Alibaba’s Ant Financial and its new Sesame Credit use proprietary customer data drawn from non-banking transactions to support lending, with Alibaba’s e-commerce business, financial service provider (Ant), and credit reporting service (Sesame Credit) all arms of the same conglomerate.
For data analytics to reach its enormous potential for credit reporting, there are big questions that need to be worked out. Is it really predictive? Will it really enable more customers at the base of the pyramid to obtain credit? Will customers’ rights to data privacy be protected? How can data analytics be effectively regulated?
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