Publications
Results - 25 of at least 222 items found
May 13, 2019
bKash’s Success Establishes Mobile Financial Services in Bangladesh
In five years, growth of mobile financial services in Bangladesh has skyrocketed, with IFC client bKash leading the way.
English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC
May 1, 2019
Developing alternative delivery channels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (FINCA DRC Case Study)
FINCA DRC has been bringing financial services to the unbanked in a difficult environment.
English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC
Apr 26, 2019
Introducing Mobile Banking to Papua New Guinea (Bank South Pacific Case Study)
Papua New Guinea’s biggest bank, Bank South Pacific, reached new customers and SMEs in rural areas through digital financial services.
English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC
Apr 25, 2019
Women & Insurance: The Next Frontier
In emerging economies, the women’s market for insurance could grow to between $570 and $890 billion by 2030.
English | 2019 IFC
Apr 22, 2019
Developing mobile banking technologies in Indonesia (Bank Sinar Case Study)
Building an effective mobile wallet product requires constant innovation.
English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC
Apr 18, 2019
Longitudinal Study: Results from Four Years of a New Banking Model for Africa
From 2014 to 2018, IFC and the Mastercard Foundation conducted a longitudinal study with nine partner financial institutions (FIs) in seven Sub-Saharan African countries to understand best practices to scale Digital Financial Services (DFS) and expand financial inclusion. The study extracts lessons on DFS strategy and implementation, business models and how institutional culture and change management influence organizations undertaking a DFS journey. By analyzing the experiences of these FIs over time, the study yields valuable lessons and benchmarks for the industry and helps to differentiate salient DFS issues faced by FIs versus MNOs.
English | 47 pages | 2019 IFC
Apr 16, 2019
Poverty Estimation with Satellite Imagery at Neighborhood Levels
Applying machine vision models to satellite images provide a tantalizing opportunity to “see” from space features and geographical areas that correspond to higher and lower levels of welfare and poverty. To date, encouraging results have been identified using night-time light emissions, as increased levels of urbanization, electrification and infrastructure correlate with wealthier geographic segments. But these approaches cover city-wide areas or bigger and do not yield the granular information that policy makers and service providers need to understand localized markets, customer demographics and how interventions impact individual beneficiaries.
English | 29 pages | 2019 IFC
Apr 15, 2019
Small Businesses and Digital Financial Services – Predictive Modelling and Segmentation for Market Sizing and Product Design
Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises are the backbone of vibrant and dynamic economies. But they are sometimes hard for financial institutions to identify because of the methods they use to conduct their transactions. This report discusses predictive data models to help a mobile network operator, identify MSMEs in its market and better understand how to serve them. Identification and segmentation of businesses that use mobile money services provides valuable information for product design and targeted marketing.
English | 27 pages | 2019 IFC
Apr 11, 2019
Bancamía Expands Micro Credit in Colombia
With support from IFC investment and advisory services, Bancamía S.A., Colombia’s biggest microfinance institution, reaches rural customers with digital financial services.
English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC
Apr 10, 2019
Transactional accounts aimed at low-income customers (Bank AV Villas Case Study)
IFC supports the development of meaningful product offerings for low-income individuals to be distributed through the mobile channel.
English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC
Apr 8, 2019
Creating Impact - The Promise of Impact Investing
The report is the most comprehensive assessment so far of the potential global market for impact investing. It estimates that as much as $269 trillion—the financial assets held by institutions and households across the world—is potentially available for investment. Channeling just 10 percent of this amount into projects focused on improving social and environmental outcomes would go a long way toward providing the necessary funding for the world to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and to shift to a lower-carbon future.
English | 104 pages | 2019 IFC
Apr 4, 2019
Leveraging Big Data for Lending in China (Ant Financial Case Study)
Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba Group, provides microfinancing to women entrepreneurs using online credit assessments.
English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC
Apr 3, 2019
The Case for Responsible Investing in Digital Financial Services (EM Compass Note 67)
Together with private sector investors, IFC has been leading a global effort to develop new guidelines for responsible investing in digital finance. These guidelines leverage IFC’s significant experience with the Equator Principles and responsible investing in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) by focusing on strengthening governance, risk management, consumer protection, and financial well-being for the unbanked and underserved—as well as IFC’s experience as advisor and investor in the digital finance space.
English | 8 pages | 2019 IFC
Mar 29, 2019
Blended Concessional Finance: Governance Matters for Impact (EM Compass Note 66)
Blended concessional finance, the combination of concessional funds with other types of finance on commercial terms, has great potential to mobilize capital and accelerate high-impact private sector investments in new and challenging markets. Yet full development of these efforts requires strong governance. IFC has been working to develop a robust governance system for blended concessional finance, guided by the Development Finance Institutions Enhanced Principles, a set of principles that employ special operating procedures and checks and balances when using blended concessional finance for private sector projects. These institutions need to learn from each other to ensure good governance, as the sharing of experiences is crucial to building global trust in the use of concessional funds. And to work well, governance structures need to be transparent and focus on solving potential conflicts of interest.
English | 8 pages | 2019 IFC
Mar 22, 2019
Do agent networks help to boost savings? – Effects on institutional deposit mobilization and customer saving behavior
This report examines if agent networks do help to mobilize savings - one of the primary objectives of microfinance institutions that introduce agent banking channels. Mechanisms of effects are presented across multiple dimensions. Results suggest that agents help to boost savings but they cannot be expected to do so in every context. Culture, products, incentives, pricing and customer behavior are factors that have to be taken into account. Key recommendations are discussed how DFS providers can nevertheless realize agent networks’ potential for savings mobilization.
English | 28 pages | 2019 IFC
Mar 21, 2019
Building Mobile Financial Services for Microfinance Institutions (Bank Andara Case Study)
Bank Andara is the first wholesale commercial bank focused exclusively on providing a wide range of wholesale banking services to microfinance institutions in Indonesia. Through this, effort, Bank Andara aims to deepen and expand financial services to low-income market segments through sustainable operations.
English | 2 pages | 2019 IFC
Mar 19, 2019
Credit to Merchants: Tienda Pago's Digital Solution for Fast-Moving Consumer Goods
This case study aims to extrapolate some preliminary lessons from Tienda Pago’s model, including its challenges and potential for scale. The study is informed by distributor and customer interviews and qualitative research, which sought to map characteristics of merchant clients and analyze both drivers and barriers to product usage and uptake.
English | 26 pages | 2019 IFC
Mar 8, 2019
Report: Moving Toward Gender Balance in Private Equity and Venture Capital
The study explores the link between financial returns and gender diversity; the lack of women in the industry; and steps needed to achieve gender balance. One of the key findings of the report is that private equity and venture capital funds with gender-balanced senior investment teams generated 10 percent to 20 percent higher returns compared with funds that have a majority of male or female leaders.
English | 2019 IFC
Feb 18, 2019
Digitizing Merchant Payments in Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s largest mobile financial services provider,bKash, added mobile merchant payments to its service offerings in 2014. Three years later, more than 50,000 establishments throughout the country were registered with bKash’s platform. While the Bangladeshi economy is still predominantly cashbased, bKash is helping to revamp the way that transactions are made.
English | 28pages | 2019 IFC
Feb 11, 2019
Report: Taking Women Entrepreneurs to the Bank in Romania
This report shows the impact of Garanti Bank Romania’s Women SME Banking Program. With support from IFC Banking on Women, the bank has loaned over €145 million to women-owned enterprises, with surveyed recipients experiencing an average real sales growth of over 5 percent per year, higher than the national average for firms in Romania.
English | 56 pages | 2019 IFC
Jan 18, 2019
The Unseen Sector: A Report on the MSME Opportunity in South Africa
Building small businesses that contribute to the economy and create jobs is one of South Africa’s biggest development opportunities. Small enterprises employ between 50 and 60 percent of South Africa’s work force and contribute around 34 percent of GDP. However, the small business sector has been relatively stagnant over the last decade, and only 14% of the country’s small businesses are formalized, capping their job creation and economic contribution potential. “The Unseen Sector” is a joint report between the World Bank and International Finance Corporation providing an in-depth assessment of the micro, small and medium enterprise landscape in South Africa and opportunities to support the sector’s growth. The report measures the small business sector size and illustrates key barriers small businesses face in terms of access to finance, access to skills and access to markets in South Africa.
English | 124 pages | 2019 IFC
Dec 21, 2018
Field Note #11 Granting Access: Leveraging Social Payments to Expand Digital Financial Inclusion in Cote d’Ivoire
Granting Access: Leveraging Social Payments to Expand Digital Financial Inclusion in Cote d’Ivoire captures the experience of piloting digital social grant payments in Cote d’Ivoire and concludes that merely paying social benefits into a digital account is not sufficient to lead to lasting financial inclusion, but that coupled with additional activities such as financial literacy campaigns and expanded agent networks it can have a positive impact on expanding adoption of digital financial services the poorest.
English | 13pages | 2018 IFC
Dec 19, 2018
Field Note #10 Women and Digital Financial Services in Sub-Saharan Africa: Understanding the Challenges and Harnessing the Opportunities
Women and Digital Financial Services in Sub-Saharan Africa: Understanding the Challenges and Harnessing the Opportunities also draws on several studies over the past six years and shows that there are pronounced differences in the way men and women engage financial services in Sub-Saharan Africa. The researchers recommend that providers offer simplified services for basic phones, emphasize marketing through social networks, and mimic the flexibility and social aspects of informal services to better reach women.
English | 14pages | 2018 IFC
Dec 17, 2018
Field Note #9 Banking on the Future: Youth and Digital Financial Services in Sub-Saharan Africa
Youth and Digital Financial Services in Sub-Saharan Africa summarizes insights on youth uptake and usage of DFS from a cross-section of studies over the last six years, and recommends, for example, that providers can better reach out to the youth by offering savings accounts, checking or prepaid accounts, and micro loans.
English | 15pages | 2018 IFC
Dec 7, 2018
Business Case Update: Lower NPLs for Women-Led SMEs
A recent survey conducted with IFC banking clients sheds light on the potential size and financial performance of women-led small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and why financial institutions should pay attention to this segment
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