Interviews with CFI Advisory Council members.

Interviews with CFI Advisory Council members.

Advisory Council Spotlight

Spotlighting the experiences of ABF Fellows and reflections from industry experts

Spotlighting the experiences of Africa Board Fellowship Fellows and reflections from industry experts

Africa Board Fellowship Spotlight

What is the scale of impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs, and how are they coping? CFI&#8217;s analysis of <a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusion.org/covid-19-and-msmes-data-and-analysis-to-understand-impact/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data from four emerging markets</a> (Indonesia, India, Nigeria, and Colombia) offers actionable insights for policymakers, market other ecosystem actors.

Eric Noggle

This research is part of our partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

Partner

Brief

The data from CFI’s surveys on emerging-market MSMEs tells a stark tale: COVID-19 has closed 15 percent of all businesses; 83 percent of operating MSMEs have seen a dramatic decline in profits, leading to struggles covering operating expenses; 46 percent of closed MSMEs report government-imposed restrictions on movement as the most direct cause of their business closure. There is no obvious "best practice" coping strategy MSMEs are using, and it’s a tough road for many MSMEs trying to return to pre-pandemic financial health.

Armed with the right insights and data, however, policymakers and other ecosystem actors can target interventions that help rather than harm.

This brief contains insights needed to support MSME recovery. It summarizes and analyzes the first wave of data from a research project on the financial health of MSME owners/operators during COVID-19. At the program's core is a longitudinal, six-wave survey in four countries: Colombia, India, Indonesia, and Nigeria. In each country, CFI is surveying MSME clients at one financial institution participating in our <a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusion.org/understanding-covid19s-impact-on-financial-health-of-msmes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">partnership</a> with Mastercard every other month for one year.

Visit the <a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusion.org/covid-19-and-msmes-data-and-analysis-to-understand-impact/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">COVID-19 and MSMEs: Data and Analysis to Understand Impact</a> program page to interact with the data dashboards and read other analyses.

On the Economic Frontlines of COVID-19: Early Insights From MSMEs Grappling With the Crisis

What is the scale of impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs, and how are they coping? CFI's analysis of longitudinal data from four emerging markets (Indonesia, India, Nigeria, and Colombia) offers actionable insights for policymakers, market other ecosystem actors. 

COVID-19 and MSMEs: Data and Analysis to Understand Impact

How do data collection and use affect vulnerable clients of financial service providers? This series tackles the latest developments in data protection and financial inclusion from regulatory and consumer protection standpoints.
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Four blog posts from early 2020 about data protection and financial inclusion from regulatory and consumer protection standpoints.

Data Protection and Financial Inclusion: Why It Matters

De-risking and Financial Inclusion

Expert Exchange

Finance for All (Banana Skins)

A introduction to fundamental financial inclusion topics.

Financial Inclusion 101

Financial Inclusion 2020

How financial service providers use data and what must be done to protect already-underserved populations against algorithmic bias in automated decision-making.

How financial service providers use data and what must be done to protect already-underserved populations against algorithmic bias in automated decision-making.

Financial Inclusion at the Data Margins

Started in 2015, Financial Inclusion Week is a week of global conversation on the most important steps needed to advance financial inclusion.
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Started in 2015, Financial Inclusion Week is a week of global conversation on the most important steps needed to advance financial inclusion.

Financial Inclusion Week

Financial Inclusion Week 2019 takes place October 21 &#8211; 25, 2019. This year, we&#8217;re taking a step back as a community to revisit the fundamental purpose of our work. &#8220;Financial Inclusion: For What?&#8221; is a call to action for our community to reexamine our goals and renew efforts to achieve them. We invite you to convene around this question to reexamine, redefine, and align our goals.
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Podcast

Financial Inclusion: For What?

Events

About FIW

Now in its 5th year, Financial Inclusion Week is an opportunity to strengthen the diverse community of players involved in building a more inclusive financial ecosystem.
The objectives of Financial Inclusion Week are:
<ul>
<li>To bring the entire financial inclusion community together to explore issues of financial inclusion beyond access</li>
<li>To create leadership opportunities among diverse stakeholders</li>
<li>To create dialogue and community</li>
<li>To foster partnership and coordination within the financial industry</li>
</ul>

From the Blog

Quiz

Take the Quiz :) 

Get Involved

<h2>Why should we participate?</h2>
Achieving financial inclusion is within our reach, but only if we work together to address the biggest gaps. When people come together to consider this question, they emerge with new insights, energy and focus. By serving as a FIW partner, you are playing a vital role as a leader in financial inclusion and helping to build a strong community, while focusing on the work of your organization.
<h2>How do we participate?</h2>
Financial Inclusion Week is easy to get involved with. Typically, organizations hold virtual or in-person events, write blogs or publish reports, engage their social media community—or all of the above. We also provide resources to help you <a href="http://financialinclusionweek.org/partner-toolkit">plan your participation in FIW</a>.
CFI will be coordinating and hosting activities during FIW and we invite the entire community to participate. We&#8217;ll publish and help to promote partners&#8217; activities as well. Keep an eye on the schedule on at <a href="http://financialinclusionweek.org/">financialinclusionweek.org</a> and<a href="http://eepurl.com/dDxzwE" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> sign up</a> to receive updates from the FIW team.

Partners

CGAP's FinDev Gateway and Digital Frontiers Institute are media partners for Financial Inclusion Week 2019.

This year, we are taking a step back as a community to revisit the fundamental purpose of our work, and ask ourselves the question: What is financial inclusion for?

This year, we are taking a step back as a community to revisit the fundamental purpose of our work, and ask ourselves what is financial inclusion for?

Event

<h1>Financial Inclusion: For What?</h1>
This year, we are taking a step back as a community to revisit the fundamental purpose of our work.

As some organizations pursue financial inclusion as their ultimate goal, others are driving toward financial health or the <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300">UN Sustainable Development Goals</a>. Meanwhile, financial institutions and fintechs are aiming to profitably serve low-income markets.

In the face of these trends, we can’t help but ask: Financial Inclusion: For What?

<h3>Financial Inclusion: For What? is a call to action for our community to reexamine our goals and renew efforts to achieve them. During Financial Inclusion Week this year, October 21-25, 2019, we invite you to convene around this question to reexamine, redefine, and align our goals.</h3>
<h2>Guiding Questions</h2>
<ul>
 	<li>What is the ultimate goal we are trying to achieve—financial health, sustainable development, equity, revenue generation? Or something else?</li>
 	<li>To what extent are our goals complementary or contradictory?</li>
 	<li>How do our efforts across the industry complement or counteract each other?</li>
 	<li>Do these goals align with what we aim to achieve as an industry?</li>
 	<li>How should we measure our success?</li>
</ul>

Financial Inclusion Week 2019

Content from Financial Inclusion Week 2020 under the themes of data, gender, climate change, consumer protection, and COVID-19.
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Content from Financial Inclusion Week 2020 under the themes of data, gender, climate change, consumer protection, and COVID-19. 

Financial Inclusion Week 2020

From Beth's Desk

What do we have to get right to achieve meaningful financial inclusion?

What do we have to get right to achieve meaningful financial inclusion?

Getting Inclusion Right

Assessing the progress of financial inclusion

Assessing the progress of financial inclusion

Global Findex

The Global Microscope 2019 assesses the enabling regulatory environment for financial inclusion in 55 countries. The 2019 edition features 11 new gender-focused indicators that measure financial inclusion for both women and men.

Report

Regulators play a significant role in catalyzing or impeding a country’s progress toward financial inclusion. By evaluating five domains of the regulatory environments in 55 countries (i.e., government and policy support, stability and integrity, products and outlets, consumer protection and infrastructure), the Global Microscope identifies each country’s current policies and regulations and notes which are likely to create an enabling environment for financial inclusion.

The 2019 Global Microscope features 11 new gender-focused indicators that measure financial inclusion for both women and men. These new indicators can help policymakers identify areas that could potentially improve women’s ability to access and use the financial tools they need to thrive.

The Global Microscope is produced by The Economist Intelligence Unit with policy guidance and financial support from leading organizations in the field, including CFI.
<h2>Major Findings</h2>
<ul>
 	<li>The enabling environment for financial inclusion has improved in the 55 countries covered in the Global Microscope 2019. Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay maintained the top rankings again this year. Likewise, the countries covered in the study’s regional analysis of Latin America and the Caribbean maintained the most favorable regulatory environments. These findings are at odds with access and usage data that show that Latin America and the Caribbean have recently fallen behind other regions. This points to the limitations that policies play in driving outcomes. They can contribute, but policies alone are insufficient in driving desired outcomes.</li>
 	<li>Practical impediments – such as limited access to identification, the Internet, and/or mobile phones – restrict women’s ability to use digital financial services.</li>
 	<li>Argentina, Costa Rica, Honduras, Russia, and other countries continue to adopt financial inclusion strategies and incorporate digital approaches to foster inclusion. In the past, national-level programs have led to the most progress over the short and long term.</li>
 	<li>Consumer protection and privacy laws are evolving to respond to the unique challenges that fintech presents, but few countries have updated their consumer protection regulations to account for the risks posed by digital players.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Calls to Action</h2>
Policymakers must ensure that both women and men are enabled to utilize and empowered benefit from greater financial inclusion. As the landscape for financial inclusion continues to evolve, and as financial service providers adopt new technologies and approaches, governments will need to implement policies to ensure that potential users develop the necessary capabilities and possess key enablers to access and use these products (such as national ID and mobile phones). This includes developing and implementing policies specifically designed to address gender disparities in access to these enablers.

Governments must ensure their national strategies do not worsen the gender gap. As financial inclusion policy shifts its focus towards the promotion of digital financial services, regulators and policymakers must address this digital gender gap or risk contributing to even greater disparities in access to financial services between women and men. Although nearly four-fifths of countries in the Microscope have strategies or initiatives to promote digital literacy, only one-fifth incorporate a gender approach into these programs.

Global Microscope 2019: The Enabling Environment for Financial Inclusion

Global Microscope

Inclusive Fintech 50

From mobile payments to behavioral changes, innovation in financial inclusion takes many shapes and sizes.

From mobile payments to behavioral changes, innovation in financial inclusion takes many shapes and sizes.

Innovation Spotlight

International Women's Day

Keeping focus on who matters most in financial inclusion

Keeping focus on who matters most in financial inclusion

Keeping Clients First

Recognizing the need for collective action in response to COVID-19, the Microfinance Coalition was formed to raise the voice of microfinance organizations and the people they serve, and to collaborate on the most pressing needs for the sector.

Microfinance Coalition

Mr. Provocative

How should US cities design and operationalize cash transfer programs to best serve vulnerable communities?

Tess Johnson

Though U.S. citizens and residents received economic support following passage of the CARES Act in spring of 2020, undocumented and mixed-status households were left behind. To bridge this assistance gap, state and local governments across the U.S. have partnered with community-based organizations (CBOs) to establish cash transfer programs to support these populations during the pandemic.

This report, part of a three-part <a href="https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/series/municipal-cash-transfer-programs-design-ids-and-data-protection">series</a>, provides practical guidance to municipalities considering or currently operating direct cash assistance programs. It is based on insights from in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted by CFI with 12 program administrators representing seven cash assistance programs.

We identify and detail practices for defining target beneficiaries, establishing eligibility criteria, conducting outreach, onboarding recipients, and disbursing funds. This report also highlights the relative advantages and disadvantages of different approaches at each step of the process.

The insights here may also be of interest to organizations advocating for and supporting the rights of undocumented populations, students and academics, and anyone interested in access to financial and public services for all members of U.S. communities.

Designing Municipal Cash Transfer Programs to Mitigate the Economic Impact of COVID-19

How should US cities design and operationalize cash transfer programs to serve vulnerable communities?

Municipal Cash Transfer Programs: From Design to Data Protection

A  content series about efforts by national governments around the world to mitigate the economic impacts of COVID-19 on vulnerable citizens. A partnership with Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

A content series about efforts by national governments around the world to mitigate the economic impacts of COVID-19 on vulnerable citizens. A partnership with Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

Policy Responses to COVID-19 &amp; Their Impacts on Low-Income Customers

Reality Check

For more than a decade, the Smart Campaign put consumer protection for low-income clients at the center of its work. As the campaign winds down, we look at lessons learned working with FSPs, listening to and engaging with clients, and engaging with regulators on market conduct supervision.

For more than a decade, the Smart Campaign put consumer protection for low-income clients at the center of its work. As the campaign winds down, we look at lessons learned working with FSPs, listening to and engaging with clients, and engaging with regulators on market conduct supervision.

Reflecting on the Smart Campaign: Lessons Learned

Smart 100 Certifications

The challenges facing financial inclusion due to the COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented. How do we as a community respond to ensure vulnerable households, businesses and FSPs are resilient and recover?

The challenges facing financial inclusion due to the COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented. How do we as a community respond to ensure vulnerable households, businesses and FSPs are resilient and recover?

Test of a Lifetime: COVID-19 and Financial Inclusion

Microfinance institutions around the world sometimes face existential crises. How they navigate these challenges and emerge resilient is the theme of this case study series, conducted as part of our partnership with Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and the European Microfinance Platform.

Microfinance institutions around the world sometimes face existential crises. How they navigate these challenges and emerge resilient is the theme of this content series, conducted as part of our partnership with Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and the European Microfinance Platform. 

Series

Advisory Council Spotlight

Africa Board Fellowship Spotlight

COVID-19 and MSMEs: Data and Analysis to Understand Impact

Data Protection and Financial Inclusion: Why It Matters

De-risking and Financial Inclusion

Expert Exchange

Finance for All (Banana Skins)

Financial Inclusion 101

Financial Inclusion 2020

Financial Inclusion at the Data Margins

Financial Inclusion Week

Financial Inclusion Week 2019

Financial Inclusion Week 2020

From Beth's Desk

Getting Inclusion Right

Global Findex

Global Microscope

Inclusive Fintech 50

Innovation Spotlight

International Women's Day

Keeping Clients First

Microfinance Coalition

Mr. Provocative

Municipal Cash Transfer Programs: From Design to Data Protection

Policy Responses to COVID-19 & Their Impacts on Low-Income Customers

Reality Check

Reflecting on the Smart Campaign: Lessons Learned

Smart 100 Certifications

Test of a Lifetime: COVID-19 and Financial Inclusion

Weathering the Storm II

Women's Financial Capability

You Deserve to Know