After great anticipation, three years’ worth to be exact, the 2017 Global Findex Database was officially released this morning. The Global Findex is the authoritative data source on global progress toward financial inclusion. Released every three years, the Global Findex surveys more than 150,000 adults in 144 economies to better understand how people access and use financial services to make payments, and also to save and borrow.

Since the 2014 Findex, the percent of the global population that has a bank account with a financial institution or mobile money service rose from 62 percent to 69 percent. Five-hundred and fifteen million individuals opened an account for the first time over the past three years, reducing the unbanked population to 1.7 billion adults worldwide. However, the new data also reveal critical shortcomings in progress. For instance, the financial inclusion gender gap didn’t improve. Globally, women remain 7 percent less likely to own a bank account than men.

Here are a few of the 2017 Global Findex’s high-level statistics:
<ul>
 	<li>Half of the 1.7 billion unbanked individuals worldwide live in just seven countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan.</li>
 	<li>In higher-income countries, 94 percent of adults have a bank account, while in developing countries this figure is 63 percent.</li>
 	<li>The proportion of individuals globally who send or receive digital payments increased from 42 percent to 52 percent; this figure is 76 percent for those who have a bank account.</li>
 	<li>In Sub-Saharan Africa, the proportion of individuals with a mobile money account nearly doubled to 21 percent, while bank account ownership increased by only 4 percent.</li>
 	<li>Globally, roughly two-thirds of those who are unbanked have a mobile phone, but Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where mobile money penetration is greater than 10 percent.</li>
 	<li>In addition to the persistent gender gap, the difference in bank account ownership rates between the rich and the poor has not improved, with those living in the wealthiest 60 percent of households in the poorest 40 percent of economies 13 percentage points more likely to have a bank account.</li>
 	<li>The accounts of one-fifth of banked individuals worldwide are inactive.</li>
 	<li>The Findex’s financial resiliency question revealed that individuals in higher-income economies would be far more likely to be able to come up with emergency funds than those in developing economies.</li>
</ul>
For more findings, you can access the <a href="http://globalfindex.worldbank.org/">2017 Global Findex Database report</a>, <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/29510/211259ov.pdf">an abridged overview report</a>, and <a href="http://globalfindex.worldbank.org/sites/globalfindex/files/2018-04/Global%20Findex%20database_0.xlsx">the full dataset</a>.

In several weeks, the CFI will release a brief distilling our key takeaways from the 2017 Global Findex.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

New Global Findex: 69 Percent of Global Population Is Banked

East Asia and Pacific

Europe and Central Asia

Latin America and The Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Global Findex

Access Usage Gap

Enabling Environment

Mobile Banking

Payments

Trends

Blog Post

Contrary to the popular narrative, financial institutions view fintechs as partners in innovation, not threats to their core business. By offering better, less expensive, and more innovative products, financial institutions can assert their continued relevance as customer-facing institutions with help from fintech partnerships.

This webinar will explore how partnerships between mainstream financial institutions (e.g., banks, insurers, and payment companies) and fintechs are addressing financial inclusion challenges and expanding access to the formal financial economy for underserved segments of the global population, particularly in emerging markets. It will share insights from a recent report from the Center for Financial Inclusion and the Institute of International Finance.

The report incorporates 24 in-depth interviews with people at the frontlines of this innovation and highlights 14 partnerships focused on financial inclusion that we think exemplify best-case scenarios and good practice.

Webinar: How Financial Institutions and Fintechs Are Partnering for Inclusion

Mainstreaming Financial Inclusion: Best Practices

Banks

Digital Financial Services

Fintechs

Partnerships

Webinar

&gt; Posted by Iftin Fatah, Investment Officer, Overseas Private Investment Corporation

The <a href="https://thegiin.org/knowledge/publication/annualsurvey2017">2017 Annual Impact Investor Survey from the GIIN</a> showed that respondents, which make up a diverse and active group of impact investors, committed more than $21 billion to impact investments in 2016 and planned to commit 17 percent more capital than that in 2017. Geographically, however, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) only makes up 2 percent of assets under management.

Islamic finance is largely concentrated in three markets – Iran, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia – but it spans nearly every part of the world, including MENA, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. For its part, Islamic finance has grown over the past two decades, with total assets reportedly totaling roughly <a href="http://sunnewsonline.com/islamic-finance-assets-leaps-to-2-trillion/">$2 trillion</a>. Despite this growth, Islamic finance still makes up a small share of the global financial market. These two areas of Islamic finance and impact investing are ripe for potential collaboration. Out of the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, <a href="https://www.cgap.org/publications/trends-sharia-compliant-financial-inclusion">650 million</a> are living on less than 2 dollars a day.

For starters, for those who aren’t familiar, let’s quickly go over how Islamic finance works. Islamic finance is derived from principles rooted in the rulings of Sharia law. The key principles of Islamic finance include: prohibition of interest, profit and loss sharing, and prohibition of gharar (excessive uncertainty, deception and risk). At its core, Islamic finance is centered around mutual well-being for banks and clients. The most notable difference between Islamic finance and Western finance is that interest or riba is forbidden. Rather, banks sustain themselves by sharing in the risk of their financial services with clients, operating on a profit-loss basis. For example, one of the most common Islamic finance products is murabaha, which is a cost-plus-mark-up (non-interest-bearing) loan. Financers bear the cost of the loan, and instead of charging clients interest, clients are charged a mark-up. Accordingly, banks act as investors rather than creditors.

Globally there are largely untapped markets that show immense potential for Islamic finance, such as sub-Saharan Africa, which is the world’s fastest-growing population and has a large Muslim contingent. According to a 2015 Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report entitled <a href="https://www.eiuperspectives.economist.com/sites/default/files/MappingAfricasIslamicEconomy.pdf">Mapping Africa’s Islamic Economy</a>, to date, Islamic finance has a presence in 21 African countries. Perhaps counter-intuitively, the EIU report notes that while Sharia-compliant goods and services appeal to the values of Muslims, majority Muslim populations are not essential for a vibrant Islamic economy sector.

In the case of sub-Saharan Africa, one of the primary drivers of the region’s Islamic economy is the need for quality infrastructure. An inadequate supply of roads, railways and ports, and insufficient energy supplies and housing shortages are among the challenges facing the continent. Further, an urbanizing population will drive demand for even more infrastructure. Sukuk, Islamic bonds structured in such a way to generate returns to investors without infringing upon Islamic law, are of growing interest to governments trying to raise capital for such projects. For example, the Nigerian government, <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/business/business-news/243336-nigeria-starts-sale-n100-billion-sukuk.html">recently announced</a> the sale of a N100 billion ($326 million) debt sovereign sukuk on the local market, meant to fund road infrastructure in the country.

The <a href="http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home.html">United Nations Development Programme</a> (UNDP) rightly recognizes the potential of this untapped market and in May 2017 collaborated with the <a href="http://www.irti.org/English/Pages/default.aspx">Islamic Research and Training Institute</a> (a member of the <a href="https://www.isdb-pilot.org/">Islamic Development Bank Group</a>) and the <a href="http://www.iicpsd.undp.org/">Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development</a> in producing a joint report entitled <a href="http://www.iicpsd.undp.org/content/dam/istanbul/docs/IslamicFinance_BroWEB.pdf">I for Impact</a>. The report focuses on recommendations for growing Islamic impact investing. Among these recommendations include creating an environment that promotes Islamic finance alongside the larger ecosystems of inclusive finance and responsible investing. Support should be offered to the creation and functioning of an effective capital market system for Islamic finance impact investing, including supporting existing and new actors in this space.

To further these recommendations, UNDP and the IDB established the Global Islamic Finance and Impact Investing Platform (GIFIIP) in 2016. The GIFIIP serves as a hub for Islamic finance impact investing actors. The aim of the GIFIIP is to be a collaborative working space that: supports the development of Sharia-compliant impact investing tools; serves as a forum for knowledge-sharing, policy dialogue and advocacy; and functions as a marketplace for deal sourcing and matchmaking. The GIFIIP strives to position Islamic finance impact investing as one of the leading enablers of Sustainable Development Goals implementation around the world, through private sector engagement.

With their rigorous moral and social criteria and emphasis on business-society relations, the principles of Islamic finance and impact investing have many areas of overlap. Bridging the two sectors and leveraging their ideological similarities is a natural response to the growing challenges related to development financing, particularly in Muslim-majority countries. Islamic finance can be a strong and virtually untapped source to finance sustainable development in many areas around the world.

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2013/04/26/sharia-and-savings-islamic-microfinance/">Sharia and Savings: Islamic Microfinance</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2013/01/15/continuing-the-conversation-on-inclusion-in-the-arab-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Continuing the Conversation on Inclusion in the Arab World</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/11/08/islamic-microfinance-advances-and-converges-with-fintech/">Islamic Finance Advances and Converges with Fintech</a>

Bridging Islamic Finance and Impact Investing

Iran, Islamic Rep.

Malaysia

Saudi Arabia

Turkey

Agent Banking

Impact Investing

Policy, Regulation and Government Initiatives

<div class="getty embed image">

[caption id="attachment_24184" align="alignright" width="621"]<img class="wp-image-24184" style="border: 0 solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/mena-tnda.png" alt="" width="621" height="267" /> Board members and CEOs of MFIs in the MENA region met at the MENA Governance and Strategic Leadership Seminar hosted by CFI, Calmeadow and the Sanabel Network, in Jordan. March 2017.[/caption]

Over the past few years, the financial inclusion landscape in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has rapidly evolved with new market entrants, changing regulations and increased financial risks. The industry aims to expand access to formal financial services and achieve much needed economic stability, and yet the financial inclusion ecosystem in MENA has experienced slower growth over the last 10 years compared to their peers in other parts of the developing world. According to <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/187761468179367706/pdf/WPS7255.pdf#page">reports</a> by the World Bank and CGAP, microfinance institutions (MFIs) in MENA are currently reaching approximately 3 million borrowers, with a loan portfolio of over $2 billion -- far below the market potential estimated at 56 million borrowers. The stakes are getting higher and MFIs need to reconsider their strategic directions in order to reach the unmet clients at the base of the economic pyramid.

</div>
The ability of MFIs to manage market and financial risks in a perpetually unstable economic environment will depend on the strength of their risk strategies, corporate governance structures and board dynamics. The Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion, Calmeadow, and the Sanabel Network, with support from the Dutch Development Bank (FMO), sought to understand key governance challenges facing MFIs in the MENA region by conducting a technical needs and demand assessment (TNDA). This assessment examined the challenges as perceived by board members and CEOs of MFIs, with an emphasis on the question of whether boards are well-equipped to steer their organizations onward to both stability and growth. The TNDA surveyed and interviewed 140 CEOs and board members of MFIs in the region, indicating their least effective technical areas and their largest governance concerns are:
<ul>
 	<li>Managing market and financial risks </li>
 	<li>Assessing technology and new business models </li>
 	<li>Board dynamics</li>
 	<li>Diversity</li>
</ul>
 A majority of respondents to the TNDA felt that their boards lacked the diversity, skills, dynamics, and microfinance knowledge needed to effectively govern their institutions.

In terms of diversity, a key governance concern is the infrequent rotation of MFI board members. Most boards have an average three-year term that is often renewed. As a result, most board members have seats on their boards for a decade or more, and in some cases since the founding of the institution. While this ensures continuity in leadership, it sometimes poses challenges if special skills and fresh perspectives are needed to make decisions that effectively serve the MFI.

Board members and CEOs felt that their boards lacked effectiveness in monitoring market and financial risks. What’s more, only a handful of institutions across the region have board members that actively participate in external training events. The sociopolitical turmoil that has afflicted the region in recent years has had severe implications for financial service providers. Some have faced widespread defaults as their clients’ economic lives have been disrupted. Others have faced liquidity challenges. As recent <a href="https://www.cgap.org/sites/default/files/Brief-Lessons-Learned-from-the-Moroccan-Crisis-July-2013_0.pdf">evidence shows</a>, weak governance at a leading MFI in Morocco was a significant contributor to the 2008 Moroccan repayment crisis, where rapid growth led to unsustainable stress for many MFIs. The crisis ended when the top three MFIs in the country started making efforts to improve long-term institutional development, including by implementing new training methodologies, assessing risk management and governance practices, and improving the overdue recovery process.

Many MFIs in the region are facing financial risks because of their non-profit status. They struggle to raise enough capital to support growth and deepen equity cushions during difficult times. In response, and as regulation evolves, more MFIs are transforming to for-profit, non-deposit taking financial institutions, which is creating a greater need for investors and consequently a need for sound corporate governance with these partnerships.

Digital financial services offer great potential for MFIs to expand their delivery channels and increase access to financial services for excluded populations. Although many players in the region see new market entrants as competition, only 4 percent of TNDA respondents indicated that their boards were effective in assessing technology and new business models. As competition from fintechs increases, MFIs in the region will need to think strategically about establishing innovative business models and developing partnerships with these non-traditional players.

Going forward, strong governance structures will play a critical role to help MFIs in MENA sustainably grow and meet the client demand as the sector evolves. There will be no shortage of risks confronting inclusive finance providers in the region. MFIs in MENA will need to think seriously about their future strategic direction and how to address their identified shortcomings and bring their governance structures to the level needed to achieve their strategic goals.

To learn more about the results of the regional TNDA assessment, reach out to Lizzy Bolze at the Center for Financial Inclusion: <a href="mailto:lbolze@accion.org">lbolze@accion.org</a>

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2014/12/23/governance-challenges-in-mena-microfinance-institutions/">Governance Challenges in MENA Microfinance Institutions</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/04/07/what-can-we-learn-from-governance-success-stories-in-mena/">What Can We Learn from Governance Success Stories in MENA?</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2017/07/24/uber-governance-fails/">Uber Governance Fails</a>

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

How Can Microfinance Institutions in the Middle East and North Africa Manage Risk and Meet Client Demand? Governance Is Key!

Financial Service Providers

Microfinance Institutions

This study seeks to understand the key governance challenges facing microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It examines the challenges that board members and CEOs see for MFIs operating in the region with a focus on whether boards are well-equipped to stabilize and grow their institutions. 140 executives and board members were interviewed about the governance opportunities and challenges their institutions face, and how effectively their boards operate.

The report further explores opportunities for MFIs to improve governance practices, reach a larger client base, and stay ahead of the evolving microfinance industry.

This report is also available <a href="https://content.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/11/CFI_Brief_MENA_TNDA_Final_Arabic.pdf">in Arabic</a>.

&nbsp;

Governance and Strategic Leadership of Microfinance Institutions in the MENA Region

Calmeadow

SANABEL

Governance

Brief

[caption id="attachment_23436" align="aligncenter" width="615"]<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfi_accion/33301263350/in/album-72157678506203794/"><img class="wp-image-23436" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/33301263350_ab536c426a_k-1.jpg" alt="" width="615" height="410" /></a> Alex Silva, Executive Director, Calmeadow[/caption]

Governance is a business imperative, and investors are willing to pay a premium for effective corporate governance. This was one of the key takeaways from the <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/programs-a-projects/investing-in-inclusive-finance/mena-leadership-seminar">Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Governance and Strategic Leadership Seminar</a>, held recently in Amman, Jordan. We’ve seen this stated priority of governance in the MENA microfinance market exhibited elsewhere, too. A joint <a href="http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/703b6a004a7232b29eefdf9c54e94b00/Voices+MF+Sector+in+Arab+World.pdf?MOD=AJPERES">IFC-Sanabel report</a> assessing the top perceived risks facing the microfinance industry in the Arab world uncovered that the market’s stakeholders viewed weak corporate governance structures as one of the more threatening risks out of roughly 30 risk categories. Financial service providers in particular perceive this risk to be rising.



[caption id="attachment_23433" align="aligncenter" width="615"]<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfi_accion/33301262930/in/album-72157678506203794/"><img class="wp-image-23433" style="border: 0 solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/33301262930_46467c6ac5_o.jpg" alt="" width="615" height="482" /></a> Hany Assaad, Co-Founder and Chief Portfolio and Risk Officer, Avanz Capital[/caption]

This seminar was the first time senior leadership from across the MENA region’s microfinance industry convened to discuss their experiences with governance and strategic leadership. A total of 41 participants from 19 MFIs came together for three days of peer learning and exchanges. The seminar, modelled after CFI’s <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/programs-a-projects/abf">Africa Board Fellowship</a>, was hosted by CFI, <a href="http://www.calmeadow.com/">Calmeadow</a>, and <a href="http://www.sanabelnetwork.org/home/default.aspx">Sanabel (the Microfinance Network of Arab Countries</a>), with support from the <a href="https://www.fmo.nl/">Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO)</a>. The Arabic Microfinance Gateway was also among the partners to help facilitate the event, and we are thrilled to share the main takeaways in this post.

“As an investor, I look for adding value and reducing risk,” shared Hany Assaad, Co-Founder and Chief Portfolio and Risk Officer at Avanz Capital. “Effective corporate governance increases the value of businesses,” he added.

[caption id="attachment_23438" align="aligncenter" width="615"]<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfi_accion/32842329964/in/album-72157678506203794/"><img class="wp-image-23438" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/32842329964_a25170c838_k.jpg" alt="" width="615" height="410" /></a> Mohammed Khaled, Senior Microfinance Operations Officer for MENA, IFC[/caption]

Mohammed Khaled, IFC’s Senior Microfinance Operations Officer for MENA, noted that most MFIs in the region are NGOs, and as such have largely volunteer board members, which can contribute to limited effectiveness. The commercial development of the sector in the region has been hindered by the lack, until recently, of legal pathways for transforming NGOs. As laws evolve in the region, MFIs may be allowed to register as non-bank financial institutions, which would change the institutions’ financial structures and create a need for investors and, as such, an increased need for sound corporate governance. Board responsibilities and dynamics are different for investor-owned financial institutions than they are for NGOs, requiring board members to acquire new skills, according to Alex Silva, Executive Director of Calmeadow.

The stakes are getting higher in the region as the overall industry is growing in complexity. Deborah Drake, Vice President, Investing in Inclusive Finance, CFI, spotlighted the changing sector risks as charted by the <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/programs-a-projects/investing-in-inclusive-finance/risk">Banana Skins report series</a> from 2008 to 2016.

The Banana Skins reports are based on the views of sector participants of the most pressing risks and challenges, like new technologies, new market entrants, client repayment capacity, and macro-economic risks. The <a href="https://www.microfinancegateway.org/library/financial-services-all-csfi-banana-skins-survey-risks-financial-inclusion">2016 Banana Skins report</a> pointed to the importance of governance, finding that nine of the top ten risks were “internal” and that institutions without a sound strategy could face marginalization.

[caption id="attachment_23444" align="aligncenter" width="615"]<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfi_accion/32842330394/in/album-72157678506203794/"><img class="wp-image-23444" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/32842330394_de9f46adb4_k.jpg" alt="" width="615" height="410" /></a> Suha Ennab Tleel, Board Member, Vitas, Jordan[/caption]

Competition from new market entrants in the region, in particular fintech companies, is a prominent concern expressed by participants. According to a <a href="https://www.microfinancegateway.org/library/fintech-mena-unbundling-financial-services-industry">recent report</a>, the number of fintech companies in the region offering financial services has doubled from 46 to 105 in the past three years. Half of these offer payment solutions, and one-third offer lending and financing services. MFIs in the region are now estimated to reach out to <a href="http://www.cgap.org/blog/20-years-financial-inclusion-arab-world">approximately 3 million borrowers</a> with an outstanding portfolio over $2 billion – far below the market potential. Slow growth is due to both internal factors such as slow expansion and the lack of product diversification and external factors including political instability and regulatory barriers. MFIs in the region need to think deeply about the different risks and opportunities in order to adapt to change.

[caption id="attachment_23448" align="aligncenter" width="615"]<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfi_accion/33528835012/in/album-72157678506203794/"><img class="wp-image-23448" style="border: 0 solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/33528835012_a2d936d0e9_k.jpg" alt="" width="615" height="410" /></a> Eyad Nino, Deputy General Manager, Microfund for Women[/caption]

Keeping the client at the center is one of the keys for sustainable and responsible growth. <a href="http://www.cgap.org/publications/business-challenges-booklet">Recent research</a> shows that customer centricity not only allows organizations to better serve customers but also solves the common business imperatives of acquisition, retention, and expansion.

When considering commercialization, concerns about drifting away from the social mission grow larger. One way to preserve the social mission is to ensure that management and boards consider both social and financial performance indicators. For example, the Microfund for Women in Jordan created the position of Social Performance Manager and Al Amana in Morocco established a Social Performance Committee that reports to the board.

[caption id="attachment_23440" align="aligncenter" width="615"]<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfi_accion/33528835252/in/album-72157678506203794/"><img class="wp-image-23440" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/33528835252_48d18f34df_k.jpg" alt="" width="615" height="410" /></a> Jane Giacaman, Director of Microfinance, UNRWA[/caption]

Both the <a href="https://sptf.info/universal-standards-for-spm/start-here">Universal Standards for Social Performance Management</a> and <a href="http://www.smartcampaign.org/certification">Smart Certification</a> also provide guidance on best practices to help financial service providers put clients at the center of all strategic and operational decisions and align their policies and procedures with responsible business practices.

The seminar’s discussions engaged and enriched participants, who returned home with stronger masteries of good governance and leadership. Going one step further, many participants made specific commitments: to form board committees; to provide board training; to recruit more diversified and experienced talent for their boards; to better define risk appetites; to seriously explore technology and adaptations to their business models; to incorporate social performance and client protection practices; and finally to adequately prepare for succession planning. We, the seminar organizers, will be checking in with the participants to see how they are faring, and we hope these are just the first steps of many to further the dynamic microfinance market in the Arab region.

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfi_accion/33644035656/in/album-72157678506203794/"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-23431" style="border: 0 solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/33644035656_186e4ea05f_k.jpg" alt="" width="615" height="410" /></a>The Arabic Microfinance Gateway served as the Outreach Partner for the MENA Governance and Strategic Leadership Seminar. You can learn more about governance and other topics on the Gateway in <a href="https://goo.gl/y4gpXz">Arabic</a>,<a href="http://www.microfinancegateway.org/topics/governance"> English</a>, <a href="http://www.microfinancegateway.org/fr/sujets/gouvernance">French</a>, and<a href="http://www.microfinancegateway.org/es/temas/gobernabilidad"> Spanish</a>. 

And for more photographs from the seminar, the full album is available <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfi_accion/albums/72157678506203794">here</a>. 

This blog post is also available in Arabic <a href="https://goo.gl/V5s0Mt">here</a>.

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2014/12/23/governance-challenges-in-mena-microfinance-institutions/">Governance Challenges in MENA Microfinance Institutions</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2013/03/27/are-youth-inclusive-financial-services-in-mena-a-driver-of-financial-inclusion/">Are Youth-Inclusive Financial Services in MENA a Driver of Financial Inclusion?</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/04/07/what-can-we-learn-from-governance-success-stories-in-mena/">What Can We Learn from Governance Success Stories in MENA?</a>

It’s All About Governance!

Jordan

Risk Management

&gt; Posted by Elissa McCarter-LaBorde, CEO, Vitas Group

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/126278138@N03/17096832777/"><img class="alignright wp-image-23408" style="margin-top: 0;border: 0 solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/17096832777_b86f614a70_z1.jpg" alt="" width="315" height="178" /></a>Alex Silva and Jeffrey Riecke’s recent blog post entitled “<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2017/03/17/whats-responsible-about-impact-investing-exits/">What’s 'Responsible' about Impact Investing Exits?</a>” hits squarely on the head a critical issue facing our industry. But it doesn’t go far enough. They ask “What if responsible investors sell their stake to an investor that doesn’t place priority on the social mission?” They argue for investors to take a “pragmatic” course and find “a buyer in the middle,” meaning something in between the “high-priced but questionable offer” and the “capital-starved social investors.” This left me wondering, who exactly is in the middle?

In the past, the NGO founders of what are today profitable microfinance banks were expected to be the keepers of a social mission, if not through ownership then through some form of continuing sponsorship or governance role. Compared to five years ago, today we see term sheets that force NGO shareholders out in the name of successful exits. In fact, even the large open-ended funds, presumably more socially-responsible leaning ones, and the development finance institutions (DFIs) that technically don’t require tighter exits of 5-7 years, are coming with term sheets that require a put option (an option contract giving the owner the right to sell assets at an agreed price) in 5-7 years back to the NGO founder or the company, or that include a drag-along right that forces a majority sale to a future “strategic buyer.” In other words, if the minority investor finds a strategic buyer who wishes to buy a majority stake or to acquire the whole company, the investor can drag other shares along to constitute a majority sale.

This seems to be the outcome of lessons that exits are still incredibly difficult in our industry. With IPOs hard to count on, the equally opaque and far off “strategic buyer” seems the other plausible solution. But just who is this strategic buyer? It is not another microfinance investment vehicle (MIV), DFI, or other player on the spectrum of social responsibility. Few of these want to buy secondary shares. A strategic buyer is a commercial bank, a telecommunications company, a consumer finance company, or other commercial entity that will want to get in on the base of the pyramid market.  Hopefully the managers of these businesses might have sympathetic feelings about the business and appreciate that it is social because it reaches lower-income customers, but at the end of the day, social is not in their lexicon.

Is this a bad thing? I agree with Silva and Riecke that if lower-income customers are served well, then it shouldn’t matter. But in reality, it does often matter because there are tradeoffs. We in the financial inclusion industry are working very hard to demonstrate returns and prove that exits are possible in order to build an impact investing community of buyers and sellers. But it can be at the expense of the investees – the financial service providers. We need more of the focus to be on what these financial service providers need and how to tailor the right kind of capital to fit those needs. Where are the (affordable) investment bankers who can identify buyers and structure appropriate capital at the right stage to match those needs?  Managing a double bottom line is never an even balance when shareholders are sitting at different stages of investment. There are always trade-offs. Riskier market segments, harder to reach geographies, capacity building or expansion that is good for the investee and its customer base, but will reduce book value and returns in the short run, are often at the losing end of those trade-offs. They are casualties when the dominant need is to push the price up.

Who is responsible for the responsible exit? We need shareholders to act responsibly together, to sequence investments in a way that helps the business pursue its goals and leads to the success of the business, not just the success of the impact fund. The fund managers who often sit on boards are not in the right place to do this. There are too many pressures to demonstrate a return for the next fund they are raising. Should the onus be on the anchor investors, many of whom are still DFIs and large institutional investors? The alternative is that “pragmatic” decisions taken by shareholders could force a sale to a commercial buyer when the institution might not be ready or not find such a sale in its best interest at that point in time.

In full disclosure, I am not opposed to commercial investors and ironically, I am finding the purely commercial investors easier to negotiate with, than the socially responsible ones who in theory are “like-minded.”

Vitas Group, established by Global Communities as a for-profit vehicle to advance its work in financial inclusion, operates a network of financial services companies that lend to small enterprises across the Middle East. Over the last decade, Vitas companies have disbursed more than $1.6 billion to 614,000 customers with an annual default rate below one percent in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan. Vitas employs more than 1,500 young professional staff and has sustained more than 214,000 jobs by lending to small business owners. Despite the volatility that has defined this region, even before ISIS or the Syria conflict emerged, Vitas has continued to earn double digit returns and has been a solid investment for its shareholders, illustrated by the fact that this year Vitas will close its first transactions with two purely commercial, private equity investors in the region.

To my point above, Vitas could not have arrived at this point without the right kind of capital at the right time. With new commercial partners and technological innovations coming into our industry, we have an even greater opportunity to achieve that larger goal of financial inclusion for every citizen. But that makes it all the more important for the development-focused founders, sponsors, investors, and other shareholders to govern well and to work together responsibly to shepherd the process.

<a href="http://www.vitasgroup.com/summary/leadership/#">Elissa McCarter-LaBorde</a> is Chief Executive Officer of Vitas Group and Vice President of Development Finance for Global Communities, where over the last 12 years she has built the technical department that manages Global Communities’ microfinance, SME, and housing finance operations. Ms. LaBorde has 18 years' experience as a microfinance practitioner.

Image credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/126278138@N03/17096832777/">Pictures of Money</a>

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2017/03/17/whats-responsible-about-impact-investing-exits/">What's "Responsible" about Impact Investing Exits?</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2013/03/20/four-challenges-for-impact-investing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Four Challenges for Impact Investing</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2015/03/03/what-impact-investors-could-learn-from-microfinance/">What Impact Investors Could Learn from Microfinance</a>

Who's “Responsible” for Responsible Impact Investing Exits?

Investors

Iraq

Lebanon

Syrian Arab Republic

Initial Public Offering

Responsible Exit

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8flyHNiuKJY]

Time flies. It’s hard to believe that the Africa Board Fellowship (ABF) program will soon begin its fifth cohort of fellows. Over the past few years and four cohorts, the ABF program has included more than 125 CEOs and board members from over 40 financial inclusion institutions across 35 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. If you’re an inclusive finance leader in sub-Saharan Africa, now’s your chance to join the governance and strategic leadership program. Applications are now open for the fifth cohort.

ABF recently held two seminars in Cape Town, welcoming the fourth cohort of fellows and graduating the third cohort. With new case studies on disruptive technologies, and an emphasis on interactive role plays and simulations, the seminars proved once again that peer-to-peer exchanges are an effective way to examine best and worst governance practices. To hear the fellows’ takeaways from the two seminars, watch our new video above.

The fifth cohort will kick-off with an opening seminar May 3-5 in Cape Town. The six-month fellowship begins and ends with multi-day in-person seminars and between seminars fellows are connected through a virtual collaboration space that includes discussion forums and dialogues.

The ABF program has demonstrated that many of the fellows are clearly struggling with the same challenges at their respective institutions and have a lot to share with each other. Though each ABF fellowship is only six months long, it is our hope that the connections forged among fellows create a durable network of leaders throughout sub-Saharan Africa in the financial inclusion sector.

This year, with Calmeadow and Sanabel, CFI is also hosting a Governance and Strategic Leadership Seminar for inclusive finance CEOs and board members of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The seminar will be held March 7-9 in Amman, Jordan. The highly-interactive two and a half days include discussions guided by industry leaders, case-based dialogues examining pressing sector risks, collaborative simulations, and opportunities for peer exchange and learning.

To learn more about ABF, and to apply, <a href="https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/about/what-we-do/africa-board-fellowship-program/">click here</a>.

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2015/07/23/lessons-learned-from-abfs-convening-of-microfinance-leaders-in-cape-town/">Lessons Learned from ABF's Convening of Microfinance Leaders in Cape Town</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2017/01/10/calling-all-financial-inclusion-leaders-in-mena-registration-is-open-for-the-mena-governance-and-strategic-leadership-seminar/">Calling All Financial Inclusion Leaders in MENA! Registration Is Open for the MENA Governance and Strategic Leadership Seminar</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/12/08/harbingers-of-doom-bank-failures-in-africa-how-to-interpret-these/">Harbingers of Doom? Bank Failures in Africa - How to Interpret These</a>

Join the Africa Board Fellowship Program

Africa Board Fellowship Program

South Africa

&gt; Posted by Center Staff

<img class="alignright wp-image-22706" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/meetingroom_mena.png" alt="MeetingRoom_MENA.png" width="330" height="218" />You’d be hard-pressed to list <a href="http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/topics_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/ifc+cg/resources/guidelines_reviews+and+case+studies/mena+corporate+governance+success+stories">all the ways</a> corporate governance can make (or break!) an organization. In the financial inclusion sector, strong boards ensure effective strategic planning, manage sustainable growth, bolster attractiveness to investors, balance risks, develop client centric products and delivery channels, and, increasingly, act as “<a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/adapting-your-board-to-the-digital-age?cid=other-eml-alt-mkq-mck-oth-1609">strong digital sparring partners for management</a>.”  Yet, a <a href="http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/703b6a004a7232b29eefdf9c54e94b00/Voices+MF+Sector+in+Arab+World.pdf?MOD=AJPERES">recent study</a> sponsored by the Sanabel Network and the IFC that inspected risks confronting the microfinance sector in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) found that half of their interviewees perceived corporate governance risk as “high” or “very high.”

Being a board member or CEO of a financial inclusion institution is a great responsibility, and can also be a complex task. All boards have different dynamics and governance best practices can sometimes be nebulous. To address these challenges, Calmeadow, FMO, Sanabel and the CFI are hosting a “<a href="http://bit.ly/MENA-leadership">Governance and Strategic Leadership Seminar</a>” this March in Amman. This seminar brings together CEOs and board members of leading financial institutions serving the financially excluded in the MENA region to strengthen board capacity through peer learning and exchange. If you’re a leader in MENA’s inclusive finance sector, please consider attending this seminar to contribute your unique experiences and perspectives, and also to learn from the experiences of your peers.

The seminar will be held March 7-9 in Amman, Jordan. The highly-interactive two and a half days includes discussions guided by industry leaders, case-based dialogues examining pressing sector risks, collaborative simulations, and opportunities for peer-to-peer exchange. A diversity of topics will be covered, not limited to managing risk, board roles and responsibilities, managing sustainable growth, navigating challenging environments, client centricity, governance dynamics, and strategic leadership.

Why attend? Seminar takeaways include:
<ul>
 	<li>A greater understanding of the key trends, challenges, and risks facing MENA’s inclusive finance sector – and how to manage them.</li>
 	<li>An opportunity for participants to interact and network with representatives of other MFIs operating in the MENA region, working under similar geographic and social contexts.</li>
 	<li>Access to first-class experts and industry leaders in microfinance with expertise in corporate governance and risk management.</li>
 	<li>The ability to recognize early warning signals and key risk indicators.</li>
 	<li>An increased awareness of corporate governance and risk management best practices and how to implement them.</li>
</ul>
The program builds on the successes of the Center’s <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/programs-a-projects/abf/">Africa Board Fellowship (ABF) program</a>, which works to strengthen the governance and risk management capacity of CEOs and board members of financial institutions serving lower-income clients in sub-Saharan Africa.

Register today! There are a limited number of seminar spots. To learn more about the MENA Governance and Strategic Leadership Seminar, and to register, <a href="http://bit.ly/MENA-leadership">click here</a>.

*This post was modified from its original version on January 11, 2017. The original posting incorrectly indicated that one has to apply for the seminar, while one simply has to register. However, it's important to reiterate that the seminar is only open to CEOs and board members of financial institutions serving lower-income clients in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2014/12/23/governance-challenges-in-mena-microfinance-institutions/">Governance Challenges in MENA Microfinance Institutions</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2013/03/27/are-youth-inclusive-financial-services-in-mena-a-driver-of-financial-inclusion/">Are Youth-Inclusive Financial Services in MENA a Driver of Financial Inclusion?</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/04/07/what-can-we-learn-from-governance-success-stories-in-mena/">What Can We Learn from Governance Success Stories in MENA?</a>

Calling All Financial Inclusion Leaders in MENA! Registration Is Open for the MENA Governance and Strategic Leadership Seminar

&gt; Posted by Daniel Balson, Lead Specialist for Eurasia and MENA, the Smart Campaign

This is the fourth and final blog entry in a <a href="https://cfi-blog.org/tag/financial-inclusion-of-refugees-blog-series/">series</a> exploring how financial services can be leveraged to assist refugee populations. This entry will consider the future of refugee financial services and what our sector can do to ensure that the future is an inclusive one that serves genuine needs and protects refugee rights. 

Syrian refugees shop at a market with their bank card given by the Turkish Red Crescent.

It is worth asking whether the financial inclusion sector is at the forefront of the movement to financially include refugees. The humanitarian sector has long struggled to determine how to provide assistance during a crisis in a way that is sustainable, effective, and accountable. Recently, humanitarian organizations such as Oxfam and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have begun considering whether it’s possible to use payments as an on-ramp for financial inclusion of refugees. Cash transfers have historically facilitated corruption and failed to make it into the hands of the people who needed it most. In-kind donations of goods such as tents, food, sleeping material and other items undermined local merchants who made their livelihoods selling these very goods. In response, the sector has begun experimenting with digital financial payments. In Afghanistan, for example, the World Food Program (WFP) has <a href="https://btca-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/185/english_attachments/Afghanistan_Case_Study_May2016.pdf?1463507198">issued e-vouchers</a> and mobile money to cover food aid. The first e-voucher pilot was carried out on a small user base of 603 recipients in Kabul for a three-month disbursement cycle from April to June 2014. The total value of e-vouchers disbursed was US$72,360. The program proved successful and the WFP launched several follow-on pilots across the country in the subsequent year.

By eliminating the need for central distribution points, e-vouchers helped insulate staff and beneficiaries from security risks. Biometric technology such as finger-print scanning and chip and pin technology helped the WFP overcome literacy challenges and safeguard client data. As a result, e-vouchers were more effective at protecting clients’ rights to privacy and helped deliver a more transparent and approachable payment product.

Lebanon has proved to be another test case for digital financial services and refugee populations. Lebanon has welcomed 1.2 million refugees within its borders, mostly from Syria, Iraq, and Palestine. As such, it is the country with the most refugees per capita in the world. Here too, digital financial services have played a pivotal role. By creating points of access with merchants and ATMs, aid organizations have <a href="http://www.cashlearning.org/downloads/untappedhumanitariandemand-abusinesscaseforexpandingdfs.pdf">developed a fully functioning distribution network</a>, allowing refugees to use their pre-paid cards in more transactions than ever before.

With the success of these seemingly disconnected technology programs, humanitarian organizations have begun speaking to their financial sector counterparts to explore how these pilots could transition to an on-ramp for genuine financial inclusion. Whereas in the past, humanitarian organizations became adept at quickly installing basic, flexible, and effective financial networks to use in times of crisis, the new approach seems to be focused around developing a more lasting system that can continue to serve at risk populations long after reconstruction. For example, more and more humanitarian organizations are considering how payment networks can evolve into a system that facilitates savings, credit, and insurance.

What can donors do better?

To achieve results on this front, donors, aid agencies, and humanitarian organizations will have to take a critical look at prior approaches and incentives. For example, the sector may wish to reconsider whether old monitoring and evaluation paradigms are best suited to providing sustainable financial services to refugees. Previously, auditors assessing the efficacy of an intervention might have counted how much money was distributed and spent. However, if we are to work towards developing long-standing financial channels for refugees, it is imperative that we account for and encourage savings. Evaluators may be required to develop newer and more accurate metrics to determine whether pre-existing payment channels can grow to accommodate the diverse array of financial services refugees will require.

Additionally, donors and practitioners will need to learn to tell their story better. In doing so, they might consider what counts as a success and why it matters to governments, donors, practitioners, and to refugees themselves. New narratives would be most effective if boosted by emerging research on refugee financial services. For example, if the sector were to demonstrate that financially included refugees are more likely to return to their country of origin, it could use this data to make a stronger case before skeptical donors. Donors champion financial organizations like Al Majmoua in Lebanon and Microfund for Women in Jordan that experiment with financial services for refugees.  By highlighting successes, donors could use their considerable megaphone to reinforce the importance of such programs and demonstrate that they can deliver financial services for refugees in a sustainable and effective manner. Such publicity could be paired with a concerted focus on overcoming the perception of refugees as risky borrowers: donors could guarantee some portion of loans issued.

What can practitioners do better?

Practitioners can find new ways to leverage digital services to address challenges refugees face. Myriad avenues are being explored; a few of the more promising ones are highlighted below:
<ul>
 	<li>Currently, refugees risk losing credit histories that they carefully built in their home countries – as well as credit histories they start from scratch and build in their host country. Credit score portability can help mitigate these challenges and encourage refugees to take up financial services in their host country as well as return to their home countries when it is safe, with the knowledge that their sound financial decision making will be recognized.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li>Refugees often arrive to their host countries with few fixed assets and limited collateral. Creditors can harness the power of crowdfunding to create digital stores of collateral for potential refugee clients, allowing them to get a foot in the door of the credit marketplace.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li>As refugees might arrive with limited documentation, they are often unable to demonstrate their creditworthiness. Alternative creditworthiness analysis tools offer one promising solution. By leveraging a refugee’s social media presence, contacts and networks, loan officers can get a sense of the client’s trustworthiness and diligence, allowing the provider to lower the interest rate on an otherwise prohibitively risky product.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li>Many refugees face political persecution in both their home country and their host country. As such, they are often reticent to divulge personal information necessary to secure a loan. Strong digital safeguards can help protect a refugee’s privacy, anonymize data and minimize risk to the client’s contacts back home.</li>
</ul>
Technology, of course, will not be a substitute for appropriate strategizing and good sense. Many of the core obstacles facing refugees’ financial inclusion can be best solved not through novel technical approaches but by reviewing and carefully internalizing lessons already uncovered by the sector. For example:
<ul>
 	<li>Mobile lending units allow the product to come to the client in cases where the client cannot come to the product. In Syria, UNRWA developed a small fleet of mobile lending units, allowing loan providers to reach clients in areas with few security threats but limited financial infrastructure.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li>Appropriate and flexible products can help an institution adapt to a rapidly changing situation. In Syria, UNRWA launched its <a href="http://www.unrwa.org/sites/default/files/content/resources/microfinance_department_annual_report_2015.pdf">BST (“Bastat”)</a> product aimed specifically at street peddlers and designed to cope with their frequent displacement, in part through low repayment amounts. A separate product provides home reconstruction loans for Syrians. These highly tailored products help address real and pressing needs faced by Syrian victims of conflict. These strategies are an effective illustration of appropriate product design, the first of the Smart Campaign’s Client Protection Principles. You can learn more about how the Smart Campaign views this principle <a href="http://smartcampaign.org/about/smart-microfinance-and-the-client-protection-principles">here</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li>Providing financial services to refugees is often a contentious proposition. In countries where resources are limited, politics are fraught and conflict is a recent memory, the public and the government are often skeptical when precious funds are redirected to temporary and foreign visitors. Recognizing this reality, institutions can minimize disruption by supporting activities that do not compete with the local economy. For example, in Lebanon, Al Majmoua has funded refugee families who make aghabani table cloths, a traditional Syrian textile in high demand throughout the Middle East.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li>Institutions serve refugees best when they focus on people. As we’ve seen in <a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/09/27/financial-inclusion-of-refugees-azerbaijan-case-study/">our Azerbaijan case study</a>, one of the easiest and most effective ways financial institutions can learn about how to serve refugees and the internally displaced is to hire them. Refugee staff come with an intuitive feel for the clients and their culture and an eagerness to work and learn. Additionally, financial institutions have found success by creating joint refugee and host borrower groups to create interdependence and build bridges between individuals who might not normally associate with one another. Additionally, by offering financial products to women refugees specifically, institutions are more likely to assist an underserved market segment and less likely to be seen as intrusive.</li>
</ul>
What governments can do better:

Meaningful progress on providing financial services to refugees requires the assistance of governments. Elected and appointed officials set the rules of the market, determine the country’s overarching policy towards refugees, signal moral support for migrants’ rights, and channel public concerns. Their support is fundamental to ensuring that refugees and the internally displaced can access meaningful economic opportunities.

Government officials can begin by stimulating an honest dialogue about the political dimensions of refugee financial inclusion and steering the rhetoric away from a binary option. Rather than forcing the public to make an imagined choice between citizen rights and refugee assistance, governments could explore avenues for how refugees can be financially included while benefiting their host communities.

Recognizing that refugees are some of their most vulnerable populations, officials can enact rules that would ensure their protection. By encouraging formal institutions to enter the market before they are superseded by less reputable lenders, officials can prevent the emergence of a black market for credit and thwart abuses before they appear.

While financial inclusion practitioners know far more about what it takes to assist refugees today than ten or even five years ago, there is much more to learn. Are refugees with more access to capital more likely to return to their home country? What types of financial services offered to refugees have the greatest net-positive effect on their host communities? These and other questions require additional research. Governments have the resources and the moral suasion to commission and implement such studies and should be vocal about the need to learn more on this critical topic.

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/09/20/financial-inclusion-of-refugees-an-introduction/">Financial Inclusion of Refugees: An Introduction</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/09/27/financial-inclusion-of-refugees-azerbaijan-case-study/">Financial Inclusion of Refugees: Azerbaijan Case Study</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/10/07/financial-inclusion-of-refugees-al-majmoua-in-lebanon/">Financial Inclusion of Refugees: Al Majmoua in Lebanon</a>

The Future of Refugee Financial Inclusion

Azerbaijan

Crowdfunding

Privacy

Refugees and Migrants

Egypt, Arab Rep.

United Arab Emirates

Mayada  El-Zoghbi

Managing Director, Center for Financial Inclusion

Amee Parbhoo

Leora Klapper

Rob Stevens

Ethiopia

India

Sri Lanka

Challenges and Crises

Delivery Channels

Financial Inclusion Strategy

Remittances

Underserved Groups

Women

Article

India is a global leader in financial inclusion. For over a decade, Accion has worked with and learned from India’s innovators, investors, and policymakers to expand economic opportunity for its people and businesses.

As I worked on the latest update to the World Bank’s <a href="https://globalfindex.worldbank.org/">Global Findex database</a>, I was pleased to see some significant progress in account ownership and digital finance. However, I was disheartened — if not surprised ­— to find that we’re still stuck in 2011 when it comes to the stubborn gender gap in financial services.

Closing the gender gap remains the grand prize for financial inclusion advocates — a truly inclusive financial system should break down barriers and bring opportunities to all people. But women in developing countries are still 9 percentage points less likely than men to have an account. That gap has not improved since the Findex began in 2011, and it’s just an average — scores are even worse in some countries. For instance, in Pakistan, men are five times as likely as women to have an account.

Why are women left out to a greater degree than men? One reason is there’s also a persistent digital divide when it comes to access to technology. According to the Gallup World Poll survey, Men are 10 percentage points more likely than women to report owning a phone. In Egypt, Ethiopia, and India, men are 20 percentage points more likely than women to have their own phone.

We need to better identify the underlying causes of digital exclusion, such as social norms. For example, it may not be acceptable for women to give their phone numbers to male bank agents — meaning women are missing out on the opportunities of mobile money accounts.

But it’s not just technology — we need more data on how women experience financial inclusion broadly, and how social norms may keep women excluded from the financial system. We'd be in a better position to close the gender gap if we had more data. I’d like to see more research exploring how and if the gender of agents influences financial inclusion. Would more female mobile and merchant agents mean more financial access and activity? It would be good to know one way or the other.

I’m also interested in whether we can establish a link between electronic wage payments and higher productivity. This relationship could affect the financial inclusion gender gap: the World Bank is starting new work with tea pluckers in Sri Lanka. In the past, many of these women’s husbands might have claimed their salaries. I’d like to know if a woman receives payments into her own account, and if she gets the full pay-off for her labor, will she work harder? Will she be more productive? Will job retention at her employer increase? These questions represent an exciting new road of research to motivate the private sector to expand financial inclusion and digital payments, particularly for women.

We need more information. We know that inclusive financial services can help women gain more autonomy; moreover, by supporting women, we might also catalyze social and economic progress. But we need to know more about how and why women use or are prevented from accessing financial services to shape our efforts going forward. I hope we begin asking these questions and pursuing real answers soon.

Want to fix the financial inclusion gender gap? Ask better questions

Financial Inclusion Practitioner

Social Good

Despite the fact that they are wealthy and modern, cities like Dubai in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) actually face a big financial inclusion challenge. There are 8 million foreign-born migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) alone, making up some 88% of that country’s total population. These workers come primarily from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Philippines, and are mostly in low-paying jobs such as construction or domestic labor. Across the Gulf region, migrants have faced tough working conditions and have been historically ignored by financial institutions. They lack access to basic financial services, including bank accounts and fast, convenient remittance channels for sending money to their families back home.
This is where <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://nowmoney.me/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NOW Money</a>, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.accion.org/uae-based-fintech-start-up-secures-700k-investment-to-advance-financial-services-access-for-underserved-migrant-workers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Accion Venture Lab’s newest portfolio company</a>, comes in. NOW Money was founded in 2015 by Katharine Budd and Ian Dillon, who were inspired by the digital-only <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-digital-only-challenger-banks-explaine-2017-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">“challenger banks”</a> that had begun to emerge across the US and Europe. While the UAE has over 50 banks in operation, none of them are able to reach the country’s massive and underserved low-income migrant population effectively. NOW Money provides a suite of products to its customers: current accounts for depositing and withdrawing wages; debit cards for use at ATMs and for merchant transactions; and a marketplace of online remittance platforms for cheaper and more convenient money transfer services. By reducing the cost of customer acquisition and reaching a relatively untapped market, NOW is able to offer these services (and eventually others) and cost-effectively serve customers that would otherwise be considered unprofitable by traditional banks.
NOW partners and integrates with large employers to pay workers’ salaries directly into NOW Money accounts. The value proposition is strong for both end customers and employers. For customers, NOW offers a suite of products otherwise unavailable in the market. In particular, during our due diligence we saw customers incredibly excited about the digital interface for access to remittances. In the UAE today, some 95% of remittances are cash-based transactions. The workers we spoke with remit 60% or more of their wages to family members in their home countries, and typically have to take time off work, wait in long lines at remittance houses, and pay high fees in order to make these regular transactions.
For employers, NOW provides a less expensive solution for payroll. In addition, the employers we spoke with were motivated to give their employees the benefits NOW offers for both moral and economic reasons. Some employers see a spike in absenteeism the day after pay is disbursed, as employees go to remittance houses. Lastly, many employers, especially in more skilled and technical professions, value NOW as a way to increase employee retention.
Venture Lab is excited to be supporting the NOW Money team as they grow and scale. We invested in the company — our first in the GCC and one of the first early-stage VC deals in the region — for a number of reasons:

<ul class="postList">
 	<li class="graf graf--li">Clear social impact: The migrant population in the GCC is historically underserved by basic financial services. The wages these workers earn are low ($200–300 per month, depending on occupation). Due to banking standards in the UAE, it is very difficult and costly for a customer to open an account if they earn less than $1,300 per month, thereby excluding a vast majority of the migrant worker population.</li>
 	<li class="graf graf--li">Large market with unmet need: The UAE is the third largest market in the world for remittances, trailing only the US and Saudi Arabia. Across the GCC (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman), the total addressable market is some 25 million low-income migrant workers believed to be remitting about $50 billion annually. The remittance corridors used are some of the most active in the world, and NOW fills a crucial gap by providing customers ease of access and lower costs.</li>
 	<li class="graf graf--li">Innovative “neobank” model: Accion Venture Lab looks to support fintech companies that have innovative approaches to increasing access to and quality of financial services for underserved markets. We have been actively watching the digital-only neobank/challenger bank models around the world and are excited about NOW Money, our very first neobank investment. We’re thrilled to be part of NOW as it expands and aims to become the financial service platform of choice for migrant workers. As NOW truly owns the customer relationship, it will be able to provide incremental value to customers’ financial lives with each further partnership, beyond simply account access and low-cost remittance tools.</li>
 	<li class="graf graf--li">Opportunity to learn from new customers, market, and product: NOW Money would be a first for Venture Lab in a number of ways. Venture Lab has never invested in the Gulf region, and NOW Money could serve as a way to learn about this fast-growing region and its market dynamics. In addition, Venture Lab has investments reaching many kinds of underserved customers, but we have limited experience serving migrant workers, which is a huge market with demonstrated, specific, and relevant financial needs. NOW Money would help us better understand this vast and growing population of underserved customers.</li>
</ul>
As is the case for all of our seed investments, NOW Money is early in its journey, but as investors in the company and proponents of financial inclusion for underserved populations, we are excited about their progress so far and the company’s plans going forward.
<a class="markup--user markup--p-user" href="https://medium.com/u/c50787175cb7" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rob Stevens</a> contributed to this article.

Why Accion Venture Lab invested in NOW Money

Accion Venture Lab