Financial Inclusion - News and Views - December 2012
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December 2012 |
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Expanding access to financial services calls for out of the box strategies to create business models for population segments that the financial sector has traditionally avoided. To this end, the Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion is launching a newsletter that will document the latest news and views in the financial inclusion space. It will focus on the unique challenges confronting financial inclusion in India, while also highlighting key developments from around the world. We believe that this newsletter will provide a knowledge base that will help build understanding around how to accelerate the poor’s access to high-quality financial services. This month, we focus on a critical but often overlooked theme: the need to listen to the client when formulating commercial and regulatory strategies to expand access to financial services. The newsletter leads with CGAP-RBI CAB’s survey of banking agents in India and a paper by Ignacio Mas, which offers a new approach for better understanding of how clients think about their financial lives. Lead Stories India Banking Agents Survey 2012 CGAP-RBI CAB conducted the first large-scale survey of banking agents or customer service points (CSPs) in India. The survey examined 850 CSPs across 11 states to assess (among other issues) CSP liquidity, revenues, use of technology, and wait time for account activation. The insights from this survey will help commercial actors and policymakers address gaps in the current business correspondent model. This paper by Ignacio Mas explores a new approach for understanding how clients think about and manage their financial lives. Mas argues that we need to create better metaphors that speak to how people plan and handle their money, and then use those metaphors to design better services. Section I: Policy – the latest from India’s policymakers Payment Systems and Financial Inclusion: Recent Trends, Challenges and Emerging Issues Financial Inclusion – Issues in Measurement and Analysis Section II: News Digest – the latest news from India and abroad Cash transfer: PM says integrate banking system, PO network Financial inclusion - not by banks alone RRBs asked to open at least 25% branches in unbanked areas Seven banks in Aadhaar payment system; seven more in line: NPCI As deadline for cash transfer rollout nears, states call system faulty Financial Inclusion advisory committee to meet in December Financial inclusion still key challenge in India: Narayana Murthy Southern states lead in credit delivery Ernakulam to be declared first district with 100% banking And How banks got the count wrong A new direction for financial inclusion? Now, open a bank account for Rs. 10 Problems in opening bank accounts being addressed: FinMin Financial inclusion of remittance recipients in Tajikistan FNB rolls out e-wallet for Namibia Section III: Research – surveys and studies on expanding access to financial services Is the Business Correspondent Model in Policy Paralysis? Puneet Chopra, Manoj Sharma and Mukesh Sadana, September 2012, MicroSave. From Social Banking to Financial Inclusion Eric Tyler, Anjana Ravi, Sunil Bhat, Minakshi Ramji and Anjaneyulu Ballem, October 2012, New America Foundation and MicroSave. e-Wallet Merchant Payments M. Yasmina McCarty, October 2012, GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked. Managing the Risk of Fraud in Mobile Money Lara Gilman and Michael Joyce, October 2012, GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked. |
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