East asia pacific south asia

Accelerating winds of change in global payments

The COVID-19 crisis is having a significant and widespread effect on global payments across sectors. The most striking and potentially lasting impact is an accelerating pace of change in the industry.

Mobile money spreads in Asia

Over the past five years, mobile money has gained traction in South Asia, which is experiencing an average annual growth rate of 46 percent in mobile money accounts—the highest across all regions. For more details check out IMF’s 2019 Financial Access Survey that was released last week

Role of DFS in youth employment

What roles do financial services play in enabling youth education and employment? This CGAP working paper, for policy-makers and funders, outlines the existing evidence and highlights important questions about how to deliver comprehensive and broad-reaching interventions at scale.

Distributed Ledger Technology and Digital Identity: Prospects and Pitfalls Ahead

Blockchain Series: Blog 4…

2018 highlights!

Here are highlights on how our global partnership ignited progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals through shifting to digital payments.

Financial inclusion, a driver of state building in India and Mexico?

This article situates latest trends within the evolution of Indian and Mexican social policies and discusses how on one hand financial inclusion policies allow vulnerable populations to access new rights while resulting in new ways of controlling consumer behavior.

Bridging the Digital Divide and Supporting Increased Digital Trade: Scoping Study

The global economy is experiencing important technological shifts, with the rise of digital technology a key driver. This can be seen today in the rapid growth of the digital economy, broadl…

The Future of Supply Chains: Why Companies are Digitizing Payments

New report underscores benefits of shifting from cash to digital payments in corporate supply chains.

2017 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money

The mobile money industry is now processing a billion dollars a day and generating direct revenues of over $2.4 billion. With 690 million registered accounts worldwide, mobile money has evol…

Digital Planet 2017: How Competitiveness and Trust in Digital Economies Vary Across the World

Today, over half of the world population lives in cities. By 2050, this number will increase to two-thirds. In this context, this study looks at the net benefits associated with adopting digital payments at the city-level.

UN report: Social network payments now reach nearly US $3 trillion in China

Payments on messaging and e-commerce platforms set to increase China’s GDP by $236 billion by 2025, unlocking new economic opportunities for people and small businesses…

Decade Edition of the State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money

The report charts the story of mobile money covering a decade of progress, industry lessons,impact and the future of the industry.

Mobile for Development Utilities Annual Report

What are the key barriers to success in the mobile phone-enabled utility space? In this report, GSMA shares key trends and insights from its work with more than 40 organizations operating primarily in our member countries in Africa and Asia.

Basel standard setter: improving payments infrastructure accelerates financial inclusion

The report attempts to understand the factors that drive awareness and interest among current non-users of digital payments in India and analyzes the experience of current users and dentify potential strategies to spur the adoption among these consumers and merchants.

Investing In Girls: Opportunities for Innovation in Girl-Centered Cash Transfers

This paper suggests policymakers and other stakeholders should leverage trends toward financially-inclusive e-payments as a means to achieve multiple potential objectives for bringing financial inlcusion to adolescent girls.

World Bank finds electronic payments a key driver of financial inclusion

This guide is the result of discussions and engagements with hundreds of stakeholders in over 25 countries to rethink and re-engineer the retail payments and includes specific insights from Mexico, Peru, and Australia.

The Level One Project Guide-Designing a New System for Financial Inclusion

Developed over 18 months as part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Financial Services for the Poor(FSP) initiative, this guide is the result of discussions and engagements with hundre…

50 best Fintech Innovators in financial services

Two challenges to help two billion reach financial security

Reposted from the original Gates Foundation blog on Impatient Optimists. Until recently, achieving financial inclusion for the world’s unbanked poor was a pressing goal with perplexing obsta…

Forum Highlights Global Standards For Responsible Digital Finance

Forum Highlights Global Standards For Responsible Digital Finance…