Articles by James Militzer
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Guest Articles
Saturday
April 12
2014Weekly Roundup – The Indispensable Platform: The growing importance of mobile access to businesses that serve the poor
With over 50 percent of people in the developing world having access to a cell phone, mobile access has become an indispensable platform for businesses and services focused on the BoP. We discuss its impact and potential in this week’s Roundup.
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- Agriculture, Education, Energy, Impact Assessment, Technology, Telecommunications
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Saturday
March 29
2014Weekly Roundup – 3/29/14: Blurred Lines in Banking – the changing definition of “bank” at the BoP
The Internet has reshaped banking in the U.S., where half of the population hasn’t entered a bank branch in the past month. This evolution has been even more dramatic at the BoP, where mobile and branchless banking services are making brick-and-mortar banks increasingly obsolete. We take a look at these changes in this week’s Roundup.
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Wednesday
March 26
2014The Right Way to Talk About Money: Ignacio Mas discusses the impact words can have on financial behaviors at the BoP
Words can have a major impact on the way people think and feel about their money, says Ignacio Mas. In this Q&A with Mercy Corps’ Kyla Yeoman, he discusses how financial service providers should take customers’ psychological needs into account when designing products - and how the words used to describe these products can affect the way they’re used.
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Wednesday
March 12
2014Moving India Toward Universal Financial Inclusion: Part 2 of our Q&A with Nachiket Mor
The Nachiket Mor committee report on financial inclusion in India has sparked excitement and debate domestically and around the world. In part two of our Q&A with Mor, we discuss India’s move toward a cashless economy, the need for responsive regulations, and how the committee’s recommendations could impact India’s economy and low-income communities.
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Saturday
March 1
2014Weekly Roundup – 3/1/14: A digital heist, mobile money power-plays and controversy in Africa cap a turbulent week in finance
This week, a major Bitcoin exchange filed for bankruptcy, after almost half a billion dollars of the virtual currency went missing. Safaricom continued taking M-Pesa global, while new competition emerged on its home front. And the World Bank postponed a $90 million loan to Uganda in response to a controversial new law. We explore these issues in the Roundup.
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Wednesday
February 19
2014The Other Driver of Financial Exclusion: Poverty alone isn’t keeping people unbanked, says Ignacio Mas
Much of the discussion in financial inclusion revolves around poverty. But in Part 6 of our Mobile Money Movers series, thought leader Ignacio Mas explains why poverty itself isn’t the biggest thing keeping the unbanked out of the formal financial system. Mercy Corps’ Kyla Yeoman interviews Mas in this fascinating and wide-ranging video Q&A.
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Tuesday
February 11
2014Insuring Impact: A Q&A with the co-founder of HUGInsure, the world’s first social impact insurance
Few new products or concepts can be described as "the first of their kind." But Dalberg and Hollard Insurance recently launched what they believe to be the world’s first social impact insurance entity, HUGinsure. It applies rating methodologies and risk management principles to social impact funding, helping facilitate loans to projects that impact the poor.
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- Impact Assessment
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Friday
February 7
2014A Bank Account for All Adults … By 2016: India’s Nachiket Mor committee report has made headlines – will it make an impact?
In India, 40 percent of the population doesn’t have access to financial services. But a Reserve Bank of India committee has recommended providing bank accounts for all Indian adults by 2016 - and it has an intriguing plan for doing so. Some see this as “the starting point for a new financial architecture" in India. Will the impact measure up to the ambition?
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