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What’s the Point of Investing in Financial Inclusion? A New Review Aims to Help Investors Maximize Their Impact
Is social investment in financial systems and services justified? It's a natural question when considering the financial inclusion sector’s development, say Timothy Ogden at the Financial Access Initiative and Machal Karim at CDC Group. And it’s not just critical microcredit studies that have raised the question: The history of social investment in financial systems doesn’t yield many obvious success stories. They discuss a new review of the theory and empirical evidence – both positive and negative – for investing in financial systems as a development strategy.
- Categories
- Finance
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Viewpoint: Regulators Walk the ‘Mobile Money’ Line
Banking-by-phone is on the rise, and so are the risks of anti-competitive behaviour and money laundering.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Cashless Payment Booms in China and India Spell End of the ATM
Driving the decline in brick-and-mortar financial services is the fall in cash transactions and growing use of cashless payments, including credit cards, contactless payments, cryptocurrencies and fintech-based services.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- fintech
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Facebook Is Inviting Washington to Regulate Libra — Good Luck With That
By not being classified as a bank, Facebook is able to avoid some of the rules that other banks have to follow.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- North America
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Reaching the Unbanked — MTN to Shake up Nigeria’s Fintech Sector
The scale of Nigeria’s low financial inclusion and the banking sectors’ inability to tackle the problem necessitated a change in strategy. Nigeria continues to lag behind other African countries in financial inclusion. While sub-Saharan Africa’s number of adults with a bank or other financial account increased to 43% in 2017, up 9% from 2014, Nigeria’s banked population dropped to 40%, down 4% from 2014.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Facebook’s Digital Money Plan Raises Stakes For China’s Cryptocurrency Ambitions
Facebook hopes to roll out Libra in the first half of 2020, presenting the most significant competition to China's cryptocurrency ambitions.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Staying Ahead of the Technical Assistance Curve: Six Lessons from Fintech Startups in India
India is at the forefront of inclusive fintech innovation. But it’s often difficult for Indian fintech startups to build and grow their businesses, while distributing the benefits of their work among their low-and middle-income (LMI) customers. MicroSave Consulting (MSC) is participating in a Financial Inclusion Lab, providing technical assistance to fintech startups serving India’s LMI segment. Authors at MSC share six key insights from their work that could be helpful both to startups, and to the investors, consultants and other organizations that support them.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Ripple Takes Fright at Congressional Pushback on Digital Currencies
In the face of a Congressional onslaught against Facebook and its putative digital currency Libra, Ripple chiefs Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen have penned an open letter to lawmakers urging them not to paint all fiat alternatives with the same brush.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- North America
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