Staff Directory

Sarah Rotman Parker

Senior Financial Sector Specialist

Sarah Parker currently focuses on CGAP's work on inclusive insurance. Specifically, she is leading the work on inclusive insurance advocacy, measurement, and financial health.

Before returning to CGAP in 2024, Sarah spent seven years at the Financial Health Network, leading their financial health measurement work and starting a new inclusive insurance practice. She was a VP of Customer Insights at Swiss Re, the global reinsurance company, where she leveraged human-centered design and customer insights to build innovative insurance products. She has also worked as a management consultant with Guidehouse. While at CGAP for six years over a decade ago, she managed work on mobile banking and digital finance in francophone West Africa and led global research on electronic G2P payments.

Sarah has a Master's degree in international development from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor's degree from Wheaton College.
 

By Sarah Rotman Parker

Blog

Variations on a Theme: Business Models in Branchless Banking

We’ve done a lot of thinking at CGAP about the different business models and partnerships that exist in branchless banking. What I find interesting is that rarely do you find two models that look exactly alike. Once you begin to really dig beneath the surface, you realize that even among those businesses that we might simplistically call “telco-led” or “bank-led”, there are significant differences.
Blog

Top 10 Posts from the CGAP Technology Blog in 2011

One of the exciting and yet challenging aspects of the branchless banking industry is how fast things change. Topics discussed just 3 months ago can seem out of date today. That’s why it’s fun to look back over the topics we blogged about in 2011 starting from last January to see how the discussion has evolved over the last 12 months.
Blog

The Allure of A Cashless Society

I’ve been intrigued to see several recent new stories spouting off about the grandiose vision of a cashless society. To a certain extent I thought we had moved past this debate. While recognizing it as desirable, this high and mighty goal seems somewhat unattainable, at least in the short to medium term.
Blog

Top 10 List: Powerful Partnerships in Branchless Banking

A few weeks ago in Washington, DC, we hosted many of our partners who are implementing branchless banking products and services around the world. This was a chance not only for us to learn about the state of play of the industry at a global level, but also to allow the partners themselves to share learnings and experiences with each other.
Blog

Beyond Payments or Just Different Payments?

Everyone is always talking about trying to move the branchless banking industry beyond just payments. Those of us concerned with accelerating “real financial inclusion” long to see credit, savings and insurance products pushed over new delivery channels. But is it possible that there’s still work to be done within the payments space itself, just diversifying a bit beyond simple P2P transfers?