Tag: Financial institutions

This blog is part 1 of a two-part series. The blog highlights the immense potential of postal banks to spearhead financial inclusion. It covers parameters that financial institutions, including postal banks, should address to serve low- and moderate-income customers effectively. We look closely at the challenges postal banks face across the globe and how they manage them. We highlight approaches and practices that can guide postal banks in their journey of innovation and mission to improve the lives of the unserved—especially in emerging and transitioning economies.

India Post Payments Bank is one of the most successful payments banks in India. Its collaboration model has created a positive impact to bridge the financial inclusion gap. This blog offers lessons for financial institutions across the globe that want to build robust strategies, launch new lines of pro-poor products, and unlock efficiencies in distribution through capacity-building initiatives.

Bhupen, a young chef from Tripura, India, uses mobile apps for remittances, as well as merchant and bill payments. He has grown fond of digital payments after his coworkers in New Delhi introduced him to payment apps. However, he discovered a different situation when he returned home to Tripura during the second wave of COVID-19. He tried to introduce his elderly father to the mobile-based payments ecosystem after seeing him risk infection to make monthly recurring deposit (RD) payments in the post-office. Bhupen and others highlight the digital revolution brewing in rural Indian households. This blog examines how we can replicate this approach beyond India to extend digital financial services to the elderly and make them digitally self-reliant.

This blog focus on how financial institutions can use digital transformation to help MSMEs recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The activities of many entrepreneurs in Senegal require financial flexibility that banks and microfinance institutions find difficult to provide. Life would be much easier for people like Abdoulaye, if financial institutions were to partner with money transfer companies to create digital profiles and develop an alternative credit history to extend them credit. Read Abdoulaye’s story.

In this blog, we look at some of the recommendations put across by MSC on how savings groups can cope with the “new normal life” that has been brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, overcome the economic shocks, and build resilience against similar future pandemics.