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One of UK’s biggest banks is going digital in Africa for a share of the mobile money market
UK bank, Standard Chartered, is making a play for the mobile financial services market in Côte d’Ivoire—where it has no physical presence—with the the launch of its first digital-only retail bank. The bank will offer digital services allowing users make transfers and pay bills.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Demonetization Crisis May Be Over, but the Time for Tech Upgrades in Indian Microfinance Is Now
India's 2016 banknote demonetization sent shockwaves through the country's microfinance sector, causing MFIs to write off US$ 1.1 billion in bad loans. In response, cash-dependent MFIs stepped up investment in fintech – but now that the crisis has passed, so perhaps has their sense of urgency. Elliot Rosenberg of Awaaz.De argues that the need to embrace tech is as strong as ever.
- Categories
- Finance, Investing, Technology
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How Incorporating Behavioral Science into Cash Transfer Programs Is Changing Lives
More than $200 million in direct cash payments is distributed daily to fight poverty in over 120 developing countries. Evidence shows that the programs are working – but there is new pressure on them to enhance their effectiveness. Josh Martin and Laura Rawlings discuss how ideas42 and the World Bank, with funding from the Global Innovation Initiative, are leveraging behavioral science to help families make the most effective use of cash payments to achieve their goals.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Gap Inc. Sets New Goal For Apparel Suppliers To Pay Garment Workers Digitally By 2020
More than 60 percent of Gap Inc.’s supplier factories already provide digital payments methods, such as online transfers to bank accounts or mobile wallets. The new goal will help scale this progress across the company’s global supply chain and positively impact the lives of more than one million garment workers.
- Categories
- Finance
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Ghanaians to make int’l payments with mobile money as MTN partners Google
The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana Ebenezer Asante has revealed that subscribers of MTN mobile money can now pay for any transaction across the world through the Google platform.
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- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Tortoise and the Hare: India and China Put Different Paths to Digital Finance to the Test
In 2016, some US$18 trillion changed hands via non-bank digital payment transactions in China – a value larger than its GDP. Meanwhile, though its population is roughly the same, India's digital finance industry has lagged far behind. But thanks to new digital infrastructure and evolving regulations, this situation is changing fast. Like the tortoise in Aesop’s fable, will India catch up with China, which has bounded ahead at hare-like speed? David Porteous at the Digital Frontiers Institute explores the two countries' approaches and their implications for other emerging markets.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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To sell payment services in rural India, MoneyOnMobile borrows a U.S. model
In India, tens of millions of merchants still operate largely in cash with a mostly unbanked rural population. Technology could solve their problems, but the bigger differentiator may be in how payment services are sold.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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Grab, Uber’s Southeast Asia rival, now offers micro-loans and other financial services
The Singapore-based company has been pushing itself into fintech for some time, with the most visible moment being the launch of its mobile payments service last November. Today, it extended that further still by introducing micro-loans and insurance options for Grab drivers and businesses that use its GrabPay services.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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