Akshat Pathak

Specialist

Akshat Pathak is a Senior Manager in the Digital Financial Services domain of MSC India, focused in Payments and Distribution. He has over nine years of experience in the financial services sector spanning across public financial management, small and medium enterprises banking, digital financial services and alternate delivery channels, fintechs, and microfinance domains.

Akshat has worked on projects with multi-lateral development organizations, government and quasi-government institutions, central banks, banks, mobile money operators, payment system providers, agent network managers, and microfinance institutions in India, Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, USA, Vietnam, and Zambia. His work includes strategy and product development; institutional assessments and risk analysis; socio-behavioral research and design; channel design; process re-engineering; institutional branding, marketing, and communications; pilot testing and roll-out support; and enterprise focused training.

Posts by Akshat Pathak

Country Focus Note: Vietnam

Given the government’s push towards a cashless economy by 2020, we may expect technology-driven and innovative solutions to emerge in Vietnam through active collaborations between fintechs and incumbent financial service providers.

Country Focus Note: Malaysia

Malaysia’s success in financial inclusion has been unique among most of the middle-income countries in the world.

Country Focus Note: China

China has made significant progress towards financial inclusion in the recent past, owing to conducive regulations, innovation, and strengthening of the banking sector.

Country Focus Note: Bangladesh

Fintech players in Bangladesh, primarily led by the MFS players, have a huge potential to address the key constraints that hold back financial inclusion and to facilitate the integration of underserved segments into the formal financial services sector.

Leveraging Technology for Meaningful Financial Inclusion in Asia

The study is based on extensive secondary research and stakeholder interviews with fintechs and FSPs across six markets – Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, and Vietnam.

Demonetisation and digitisation – A diagnostic study

This demand-side diagnostic study aims to gauge the end-user experience in adopting cashless modes (including cheques) along with the barriers (behavioral and functional) they faced in uptake and usage of cashless solutions.

KYC harmonisation study

KYC harmonization study was undertaken to analyze the existing Know Your Customer (KYC) practices of first-time customer on-boarding by service providers (Banks, Mobile Network Operators, Mobile Money Operators, and Pre-paid Payment Instrument issuers) with respect to the prevailing regulatory landscape.

Agent Dormancy: Reasons and Remedial Measures

Dormancy among agents is a cause of concern for financial inclusion in India. This note focuses on some of the prominent reasons for agent dormancy.