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The Secret Ingredient in Product Design: How Crossing the ‘Emotional Gateway’ Can Boost Financial Services
Banks can be intimidating places for people who have never set up an account, let alone stepped foot in one. But people love and trust their savings groups, which are a mainstay of financial security in dozens of countries. Innocent Ephraim at the Financial Sector Deepening Trust and Daryl Collins at Bankable Frontier Associates (BFA) ask: How can formal providers offer financial services that appeal to users in the same way?
- Categories
- Finance
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The countdown begins: Top fintech trends that India can expect in 2018
The year has pretty much offered what everyone expected. It has cemented the significance of the fintech sector in India. From increased momentum behind digital payments to product innovation in digital loan disbursement platforms, the entire sector is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the nation functions the way it does and achieves the two-digit growth rate that it has persistently been longing for.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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Announcing the Most Influential NextBillion Posts of 2017
As we welcome 2018, we'd like to pay a final tribute to the top posts of 2017. In their own way, each of these insightful pieces introduced a novel concept, approach or argument that captured our readers' attention – and in some cases, provoked their ire. Here are the winners of 2017's Most Influential Post Contest.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Finance, Investing
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Kenya’s fintech companies are innovating to bring small businesses into their fold
Mobile operators and electronic payment firms are focusing on the hundreds of thousands of small businesses in Kenya by introducing new products specifically aimed at paying for low-value card transactions with ease, speed, and convenience.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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What was the Most Influential NextBillion Post of 2017? Vote for Your Favorite
“Fast away the old year passes.” That lyric from “Deck the Halls” always hits home this time of year – and in 2017, it resonates particularly strongly. Across the social sectors, the year often felt like a race against time (or against competing societal forces) and many of our most popular posts reflect that sense of urgency. Here are the most influential posts from the last twelve months, one from each month, in our sixth annual holiday contest. Vote early, vote often.
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Will Microfinance Still Exist 10 Years From Now? Thoughts from European Microfinance Week
Does microfinance still have a place in global development? Grassroots Capital Management President Paul DiLeo tackled the subject in the closing plenary of the 2017 European Microfinance Week, which asked where microfinance – and MFIs – would be in five or 10 years. He discusses three key takeaways from the discussion, which included some surprising insights into the role the often-maligned industry can still play in poverty alleviation.
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Beyond ‘Send Money Home’: The Complex Gender Dynamics Behind Mobile Money Usage
In Kenya, gender doesn’t factor as strongly in accessing mobile money accounts as it does for formal sector accounts. This is surprising because in Africa women are less digitally connected than men. However, the networked nature of mobile money explains why more women adopt the technology. Susan Johnson writes that financial inclusion analysis and policy must factor in how women use their money, how it connects them to family and how financial services can facilitate this.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Latin America’s Fintech Rebels Declare War on Inflation
A frustrated 49 percent of the region’s population and many small- and medium-size businesses are outright excluded from traditional financial services, according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). Others, who have access, don’t even bother using the system because of decades of broken promises.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Latin America