Searching: Research & Analysis

Women in the Platform Economy: Emerging Insights

Millions of women work in the platform economy but often face barriers that prevent them from capturing platform-based opportunities. Learn about female workers’ experiences and how financial services can help make platforms more inclusive.

TymeBank Case Study: The Customer Impact of Inclusive Digital Banking

As a fully digital retail bank in South Africa, TymeBank has created a suite of basic products that cater to the essential financial needs of low-income rural customers.

The Great Unbundling: How Technology Is Making Financial Services Modular and What It Means for Inclusion

Financial products and processes are being unbundled, reassembled, and embedded in entirely new ways that may change the very nature of banking. What does this mean for financial inclusion?

Digitization in Microfinance: Case Studies of Pathways to Success

This Working Paper takes a unique look at microfinance institution innovation with digital technologies by featuring case studies on five MFIs that successfully created measurable customer and business value through digitization:

Microfinance Solvency and COVID-19: A Call for Coordination

This COVID-19 Briefing looks specifically at how to address the solvency risks facing medium and small microfinance providers, which often reach into communities and geographic areas that are not served by larger lenders.

Snapshots: MFIs During the COVID-19 Crisis

CGAP and Symbiotics analyze COVID-19's impact on the performance of the more than 300 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Symbiotics global portfolio, in this series of brief papers published between November 2020 and July 2021.

PAYGo PERFORM: Financial, Operational, and Portfolio Quality KPIs for the PAYGo solar industry

With the help of 600 colleagues from the PAYGO offgrid solar sector, a new set of 36 standard metrics covering portfolio quality, unit and firm-level economics, and company operational indicators are available today.

Getting Repaid in Asset Finance: A Guide to Managing Credit Risk

From Sub-Saharan Africa to the Indian Subcontinent, asset finance and leasing companies are doing invaluable, innovative work to finance critical assets for low-income and informal borrowers. But unlike banks and microfinance institutions, many of these companies do not have deep experience in organizing a credit operation, mitigating risk throughout a credit transaction or managing a portfolio of loans or leases.

Fintech and Financial Inclusion: A Funders' Guide to Greater Impact

This practical guide, based on two years of global research, describes how development funders can identify promising fintechs and maximize the impact of their support.

Micro and Small Enterprise Finance: Examining the Impact Narrative

Micro and small enterprises are a vital part of the livelihoods and resilience strategies of poor households across emerging markets. This deck reviews existing impact literature and identifies key knowledge gaps.