BETTER THAN CASH: Ruth Goodwin-Groen is inspiring social change with digital financial inclusion

Policy and regulatory recommendations to facilitate mobile humanitarian and social assistance during COVID-19

This guidance note outlines the most significant challenges that MNOs face (or likely to face) in the context of supporting the delivery of humanitarian assistance in a COVID-19 world and offers relevant recommendations to governments on how to help address or mitigate these challenges.

From conditional cash transfers to fintech adoption

This paper looks at the impact of introducing debit cards for conditional cash transfers in urban areas of Mexico.

Partnering During Crisis: The Shared Value of Partnerships between Mobile Network Operators and Humanitarian Organisations

This research offers evidence to help MNOs make informed decisions about engaging in partnerships with humanitarian organisations, and to help humanitarian actors better understand their MNO partners and build successful long-term partnerships.

Inclusive Growth: The Global Challenges of Social Inequality and Financial Inclusion

The book outlines a journey from enabling models of government and business to strategies for creating both financial and social inclusion and entrepreneurism as mechanisms for sustainable and inclusive growth.

Improving Financial Inclusion through the Delivery of Cash Transfer Programmes: The Case of Mexico's Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera Programme

This paper follows a quasi-experimental research design to assess the impact of the electronic payment system of Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera (POP) programme.

Global cooperation to tackle digital divide

UNCTAD’s Digital Economy Report presents recent trends and discusses key policies for value creation and capture and calls for greater international collaboration.

The International Labour Organization commits to expanding the use of responsible digital payments to advance decent work

New partnership will result in promoting digital payments as an important tool to increase security, financial inclusion and economic opportunities in the workplace. …

Global evidence on contribution of MSMEs

New ILO study reveals seven in 10 workers are self-employed or in small businesses. The study also finds that an average of 62% of employment (in the 99 countries studied) is in the informal sector. It calls for creating an enabling environment for these businesses and supporting them through access to finance and digital infrastructure.

New insights into inclusion-focused fintech 

The recently launched Inclusive Fintech 50 whitepaper looks at how early-stage fintechs are working on financial inclusion. Findings reveal that “funding is concentrated in several notable ways, innovation is not limited to technology and common standards are needed to bring clarity to the field.”

Latest trends in the field of "suptech"

This paper examines latest trends in suptech initiatives by looking at the work of 39 financial authorities globally.

How to put national digital agenda in action

Cross-agency collaboration, national and digital identity and having common templates and taxonomies in place can help governments on their digital journeys. Read the new Citi publication on digitizing governments that also features case studies from Pakistan and India.

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

Laying the groundwork for digital transformation

This FinDev Gateway webinar offers insights into how organizations can approach digital transformation in a strategic way. It features CGAP’s Greta Bull and MicroSave’s Graham Wright (along with other speakers). 

Global payments revenue reach $1.9 trillion

Payments generated $1.9 trillion in revenue last year with financial companies in Asia-Pacific taking home almost half of that amount. Read McKinsey's Global Payments Report 2019 to learn more.

New blockchain for social impact report

The new Stanford Business “Blockchain for Social Impact" report is out! The most common use case among its sample of organizations is records and verification, whereas the challenges cited most often are regulatory. The interviewees reported that launching the project was harder than anticipated.

Tienda Pago’s Digital Solution for Fast-Moving Consumer Goods

This report discusses Tienda Pago’s Digital Solution for Fast-Moving Consumer Goods.

Blockchain for Social Business: Principles and Applications

This paper identifies and discusses principles and applications of Blockchain that enhance trust, transparency, and auditability in Social Business (SB) activities. It outlines the challenges related to creating a native cryptocurrency for SB, and barriers to infrastructure and technology adoption by different SB stakeholders.

Blockchain and supply chain management integration: a systematic review of the literature

“Purpose This paper aims to identify, analyse and organise the literature about blockchains in supply chain management (SCM) context (blockchain–SCM integration) and proposes an agenda for …

Early Lessons on Regulatory Innovation to Enable Inclusive FinTech

Read the University of Cambridge and UNSGSA report on how regulators are innovating to better respond to financial innovation….