Isvary Sivalingam

Specialist

Isvary is a Senior Manager with a regional focus on Southeast Asia and serves as the Mekong lead at MSC. She has more than nine years of experience spanning both the public and private sectors.

She started her career at the Singapore Economic Development Board, as part of the founding team responsible for driving the policies to spur research and investments to build a then-nascent Clean Energy sector. In the last six years she has specialised in the international development sector, specifically working on poverty and vulnerability alleviation through economic development and financial inclusion. Through recent projects focused on regulatory enablement and technology relevance for Financial Inclusion, she has deepened her knowledge on and networks in the Asian Fintech space. Her areas of expertise include strategy, business development and project development/design and management. She has a proven track-record in partnership management across a variety of international and philanthropic organisations such as Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the Asian Development Bank, the MetLife Foundation and the UN in the Palestinian Territories and the ASEAN region.

Posts by Isvary Sivalingam

Launch of the digital credit report in Kenya- First English webinar in our series

Speakers from SPTF, MSC and the Smart Campaign discuss the key insights from the analysis of digital credit in Kenya and the recommendations from the newly launched report ‘ Making Digital Credit Truly Responsible’.

Making digital credit truly responsible- Insights from analysis of digital credit in Kenya

Based on MSC’s comprehensive study of the state of the digital credit landscape in Kenya (2019), this report highlights some positive signs and some persistent problems, as well as opportunities to improve products and consumer protection.

Making digital credit truly responsible

This video gives a brief highlight of what we have learned so far about digital credit in Kenya over the last 7 years.

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.

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.

Feeding India’s Poor: Plugging Leakages, Without Doing Any Harm

This policy brief discusses two distinct and more recent approaches, namely, Direct Benefit Transfers and e-PDS (i.e. Automation in PDS), as undertaken by different states to address leakages.

Andhra Pradesh’s Public Distribution System: A Trailblazer

This note highlights how the state of Andhra Pradesh stands out as a pioneer in automating the Public Distribution System and has achieved impressive savings in terms of cost.