Financial Inclusion

The financial services industry has much to contribute to the UN and World Bank goal of full financial inclusion by 2020. This group will focus on industry contributions, ideas, barriers and enablers.

Retired Member 

Model of a Payments Bank and Opportunities it presents

Prashant a friend (Working as a branch manager @ Pvt Sector bank) from Bhopal called up few days back and had a straight question “What are the opportunities for a banker in Payments Bank?” Below mentioned is the part 1 of that conversation, the objective is also to present authors understanding of what kind of business model a payments bank can ex...

23 September 2015 /payments /inclusion

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Enabling Women’s Savings

Is a move toward digital savings a better answer to the financial needs of poor women than continuing to roll out robust savings associations? An excellent paper just published by Women’s World Banking pleads for more active consideration of gender in the design of digital savings products. The paper, “Digital Savings: the Key to Women’s Financia...

03 September 2015 /inclusion

Retired Member 

Payments Bank - A new era in Indian Banking

With Reserve Bank of India (RBI) giving in-principle approval to 11 entities to start Payments bank out of total 41 applications, same is being seen as a positive move by RBI towards making banking services available in unbanked areas and a big step towards Financial Inclusion in India. Payment Banks will be able to offer their products and servic...

20 August 2015 /retail

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Bring Back the Men - To Savings Groups

From its modern beginnings with Grameen Bank, microfinance has focused on women. This made so much sense: they were traditionally underserved and financially disadvantaged, had clearer financial priorities, and were better risks. Savings groups as well have focused particularly on women in most parts of the world, again for very good reasons. But ...

08 July 2015 /retail /inclusion

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Rumors of the Imminent Demise of Cash

… are greatly exaggerated. This is very significant for financial inclusion. Many people are rightly considering how much easier financial inclusion would be, especially in rural areas, if we had a society that was fully digital in its financial activities. But even in a country like Kenya, that is a very, very long way off, so we must focus on an...

16 June 2015 /retail

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Informal Savings Groups as Enablers of Financial Inclusion

A major challenge for full financial inclusion is extension to the poorest households in rural areas. Even in the presence of access to mobile services, the lack of financial literacy, unawareness of available services, and very small initial savings capabilities severely limit take-up and utilization of financial services. Well-constructed inform...

09 June 2015 /retail

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

All-Encompassing Lending Platform for the Poor?

Is that arrogant enough? But what if we could create a generalized digital lending platform that is specifically designed for the needs of the world’s poorest people? Is that remotely possible? What might it look like? This blog takes a high-level shot at this – not because I think have all the answers (duh!) but in the hope that it will generate s...

01 June 2015

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Lines of Credit for the Poor: Are They Safe

Should financial institutions offer lines of credit (such as overdraft facilities) for the very poor? The question is prompted by some comments on a couple of my earlier posts, in which concern is expressed that banks have used overdraft facilities to push poorer households into overspending and overextending, resulting in significant overdraft fe...

27 May 2015 /regulation /retail

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Can Banks Really Meet the Financial Needs of the Poor?

We often talk about whether banking the poor can be profitable, as though that’s the only thing stopping banks from providing the financial services the poor need. But in reality, the bigger challenge is that standard consumer financial services simply won’t do. Even when poor households have access to formal or semi-formal financial services, the...

20 May 2015 /retail

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Financial Inclusion in a US Immigrant Community

The US Financial Diaries, which have been collected and analyzed over the past year or so by the Center for Financial Services Innovation in tandem with NYU Wagner’s Financial Access Initiative (FAI), provide some helpful insights into financial behavior, preferences and issues particularly for lower-middle class and poorer households in the US. T...

15 May 2015 /retail