The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Philippines, reportedly has increased the maximum allowable account balance for savings accounts at microbanking offices (MBOs) to PHP 40,000 (USD 968) from PHP 15,000 (USD 363). Continue Reading »

DemirBank, an Azerbaijani commercial bank that lends to small and medium-sized enterprises, recently announced that customers have the opportunity to repay loans at automated teller machines (ATMs) with their bank cards. Continue Reading »

Ingenico, an electronic payment solutions company based in France, has announced the launch of a mobile fingerprint identification service called the iWB Bio Series, which is a mobile biometric identification device that allows financial institutions and governments to identify individuals who have do not  have standard forms of identification. Continue Reading »

Since Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo vowed in 2012 to replace all cash wage payments in the hopes of minimizing corruption, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has issued wage payments to 270,000 of 1 million civil servants via mobile banking. Continue Reading »

In July 2012, Old Mutual Kenya (OMK), a Nairobi-based investment subsidiary of UK-based Old Mutual Group, launched i-Invest, a platform that offers investment products that can be purchased via M-Pesa, a service of a Kenya-based mobile operator Safaricom. Continue Reading »

Easypaisa, a Pakistani branchless banking services company, has launched a mobile savings product called Khushaal Munafa. Continue Reading »

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the US-based World Bank Group, and Jordan Ahli Bank, a Jordan-based financial institution, recently launched the SME Toolkit, an initiative of IFC, in Jordan. Continue Reading »

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the commercial arm of the US-based World Bank Group, is working with the Central Bank of Belize, the country’s financial regulatory body, to launch a credit-reporting system that will allow financial institutions to exchange credit information. Continue Reading »

The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), a Thailand-based network of financial policymakers from approximately 85 countries, recently launched the African Mobile Phone Financial Services Policy Initiative (AMPI), which will aim to address barriers to the “uptake of mobile financial services” in Africa. Continue Reading »

CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), a US-based nonprofit research and policy center, the Grameen Foundation, a US-based nonprofit that seeks to increase business opportunities and telecommunication services for poor people in rural areas, and Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN) Uganda, the Ugandan arm of South African telecommunications company MTN Group, recently announced plans to launch an initiative to research and develop new mobile financial products. Continue Reading »

Ears Earth Environment Monitoring Limited, a subsidiary of the Netherlands-based remote sensing company Ears Holding, is offering its Food Early Solutions for Africa (FESA) microinsurance system free of charge to microinsurance providers. Continue Reading »

ProCredit Bank Armenia, a microfinance institution (MFI) and member of Germany’s ProCredit Holding, recently launched its Visa Business Card, which is supported by the 170-country network of US-based payment services firm Visa. Continue Reading »

Pi Slice, a start-up crowdfunding platform based in Dubai, reportedly plans to link poor entrepreneurs in the Middle East to microloans raised via social media. Continue Reading »

The value of mobile money transactions in Kenya reportedly reached a total of KES 1.4 trillion (USD 16.2 billion) in the financial year ended June 30, 2012. Continue Reading »

Opportunity International, a US-based nonprofit that focuses on microfinance in emerging markets, has recently agreed to license Insight, a business analytics product developed by Temenos, a software company based in Switzerland. The organization will hire Temenos to customize the software to produce reports that measure the social impact of lending on borrowers and their communities. Continue Reading »

The Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Finance Forum, a platform of the G-20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) that is managed by the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), recently launched a new website. Continue Reading »

Published by Global System for Mobile Communications Association’s mWomen Global Development Alliance, Visa and Bankable Frontier Associates; 2013; 40 pages; available at: http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/GSMA-mWomen-Visa_Unlocking-the-Potential_Feb-2013.pdf

This report analyzes connections between mobile financial services and women’s financial inclusion in the developing world. Continue Reading »

The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), Uganda’s insurance industry regulator, reportedly is partnering with Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A), a multilateral platform that aims to coordinate financial sector activities among African governments, and the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii), a global program hosted by Germany’s international cooperation agency (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), to create regulation that make access to microinsurance more efficient, mainly for low-income earners. Continue Reading »