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Viewpoint: The Modi Years: Have banking services become more accessible for Indians?
The Jan Dhan Yojana led to an increase in the number of bank accounts. But credit facilities have not expanded.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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Press release: VisionFund International’s Women’s Empowerment Fund Commits 2019 Funding to Armenia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Vietnam
Ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March, VisionFund International (VisionFund), the microfinance arm of children’s charity World Vision, has pledged over $1.2 million in funding to support over 32,000 women in 2019 in Armenia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Uganda, and Vietnam from its Women’s Empowerment Fund, a fund established to empower women’s ability to improve their livelihoods and benefit their children.
- Source
- Press release
- Categories
- Finance
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Press release: GSMA Report Highlights 20 Per Cent Annual Increase in Mobile Money Accounts to More Than 866 Million Worldwide
“The mobile money industry is fast-evolving against a backdrop of increasing internet access and smartphone adoption, and now more than ever, mobile’s unparalleled global scale provides a tremendous opportunity to reach the 1.7 billion people who remain financially excluded.”
- Categories
- Finance
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Study: How microfinance may lead to indebtedness
The authors found that more than 56% of the households in rural areas and 35% in urban areas were over-indebted, on the basis of a survey of 280 rural and urban households from microfinance markets across 10 districts in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Kerala and West Bengal in 2015-2016.
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- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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Accenture, Mastercard and Amazon Web Services create blockchain powered circular supply chain
Accenture has partnered with Mastercard, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Everledger, and Mercy Corps to explore solutions that will “empower consumers, enable transparency and promote financial inclusion for small-scale producers” through a circular supply chain.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Client Protection in the Age of Fintech: New Standards Promote Best Practices in Digital Finance
Technology has vast potential to improve lives, and fintech is no exception – but it also has some clear risks and downsides. And linking a complex industry like digital finance with client protection is no easy task. Lucia Spaggiari at MFR and Isabelle Barres at Accion’s Smart Campaign explore their organizations’ joint efforts to tackle this challenge through new client protection standards for digital credit providers. They invite people to provide input on these draft standards during the six-week public comment period, which runs until March 22.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Why the Future is African – And Why SMEs Should Lead the Way
It’s conventional wisdom that small and medium enterprises are key to economic growth in emerging markets. This is particularly true in Africa, where local SMEs dominate the business landscape, and a fast-growing young population needs the services, jobs and economic growth they provide. But as Trevor Hambayi at Development Finance Associates explains, these enterprises face several unique challenges – starting with a lack of finance. He explores the problem, and some solutions that could help unlock the SME sector’s potential.
- Categories
- Finance
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Don’t Fall for the World Bank’s Bold Claims About Financial Inclusion and the SDGs
"It sounds so simple: Everyone gets access to financial services and – presto – the foundations for the SGDs will be laid." That's the key message Phil Mader and Maren Duvendack took away from World Bank economist Leora Klapper's recent NextBillion post. But that rosy scenario, they say, bears no resemblance to reality. In fact, according to their exhaustive new review of existing research, the inconvenient truth is that financial inclusion is not accelerating progress toward the SDGs – and isn't even fundamental for attaining them.
- Categories
- Finance
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