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Breaking Down Development Myths: Metrics and data demolishing poverty misconceptions
As you might have seen, Bill and Melinda Gates recently released the 2014 edition of their annual Letter. This year, the theme of the correspondence was ‘Mythbusters’ – tackling the misconceptions and beliefs about development in the most powerful way possible: with data and real evidence.
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Kenyan Banks Battle to Go Fully Digital in Race for Cheap Deposits
A customer can deposit cheques, open an account, place standing orders, transfer funds, make balance enquiries and pay for utilities without actually going to the banking hall.
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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NexThought Monday – Money Stories: What if financial products could accommodate the tales we tell ourselves?
We constantly create stories about ourselves and our experiences to help us make sense of the world. These stories even help us manage our finances. But by and large, financial institutions haven’t leveraged the power of users’ stories, and this contributes to some of the challenges they’ve faced in serving low-income customers.
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Faster networks to drive mobile money
THE roll-out of super-fast mobile networks will aggressively drive the uptake of mobile money services, as research by MEF, the global community for mobile content and commerce, shows a quarter of users say they do not make mobile payments because "the network is too slow".
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More Zimbabwe companies paying salaries using mobile money
A ‘cash crunch’ in Zimbabwe is forcing more local companies to turn to mobile money to pay workers’ salaries.This is according to officials at Econet who say that use of their ‘EcoCash Payroll’ service has risen 82% amid “liquidity problems” facing banks in the country.
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Banking by Boat Spells New Client Growth for Indonesia’s Bank Rakyat
The absence of cash machines on many of Indonesia’s Spice Islands, where cloves and nutmeg once made sultans and European explorers wealthy, means banking is often done on boats that can carry automated teller machines.
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Where Does Crowdfunding Go From Here? Experts Explain
Crowdfunding is a genuine phenomenon. If you include—as many people do—the newly created market for “private issuers publicly raising” or PIPRs using the new SEC rules allowing general solicitation of accredited investors allowed under the 2012 JOBS Act signed by President Obama, 2014 could see over $10 billion of crowdfunded transactions. Crowdfunding is going mainstream.
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- crowdfunding
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Poor service: Tiny loans are getting more expensive
INTEREST on the minuscule loans made by microfinance outfits has always been high, but over the past few years it has become even higher. A recent paper, using data on over 1,500 microfinance institutions (MFIs) from around the world, shows that for the smallest loans, typically less than $150, the average rate climbed steadily from 30% in 2004 to 35% in 2011.*
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