Bansal, the <a href="https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/about/what-we-do/the-smart-campaign">Smart Campaign</a>'s Senior Director in South and Southeast Asia, notes that the problem over-indebtedness is more severe in the island country than elsewhere.

She also points out that the government's decision to write off business loans of up to 100,000 rupees falls short.

"One-off measures will not do, says Ms Bansal: Sri Lanka needs properly enforced rules that prevent over-indebtedness and ensure fair treatment of borrowers."

Read the <a href="https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/08/15/microfinance-is-driving-many-sri-lankan-borrowers-to-despair">full article</a> (soft paywall).

In The Economist: Hema Bansal on Over-Indebtedness in Sri Lanka

The Smart Campaign

South Asia

Sri Lanka

Consumer Protection

Over-indebtedness

News

To kick off Financial Inclusion Week 2018, Tess Johnson, research associate at the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion, sat down with CreditMantri co-founder Gowri Mukherjee for a conversation highlighting the fintech perspective on getting inclusion right. CreditMantri is a fintech company based in Chennai, India that aims to reinvent the credit landscape by giving consumers access to responsible and transparent credit.

Podcast: Getting Inclusion Right Podcast with Gowri Mukherjee

India

Financial Inclusion Week

Podcast

This post originally appeared on the <a href="https://nextbillion.net/does-greater-inclusion-lead-to-financial-health/">NextBillion Blog</a> and is re-posted here with permission.

What conditions create physical health? We know more now than we ever have—working out, eating lots of vegetables and limiting alcohol intake seem to be healthy decisions. But there is no one agreed-upon set of conditions for physical health and wellness. Rather, there is a body of literature that provides clues about different aspects of health. For instance, nutrition literature makes it clear that broccoli is a better food choice than bacon, and data shows us that doing yoga is healthier than watching TV.

In the same way, the new <a href="http://news.gallup.com/reports/233399/gallup-global-financial-health-study-2018.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gallup Global Financial Health Study</a> gives us additional language and data to understand more about what drives different aspects of financial health. No single perspective on financial health constitutes a definitive “theory of everything,” but the new Gallup data contributes significantly to our understanding of how to make financial inclusion work for customers. This dataset comes at the perfect time—right on the heels of the <a href="https://globalfindex.worldbank.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Global Findex</a> launch—and with it, we can start to ask ourselves with humility if financial inclusion is leading to financial health.
<h3>An Unprecedented Look at Personal Finance</h3>
First, some background about the Gallup survey. The financial inclusion field has benefited greatly from excellent surveying and reporting, from <a href="http://financialdiaries.com/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">financial diaries projects</a> in <a href="http://www.usfinancialdiaries.org/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">multiple countries</a> to huge global databases such as the World Bank’s Global Financial Index, or Findex, which gathers and analyzes sex- and age-disaggregated data on account ownership, transaction patterns, account dormancy and much more. MetLife Foundation, in partnership with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, wanted to know even more: the first-hand perspectives of individuals’ financial situations as they experience them.

So MetLife Foundation partnered with Gallup, one of the global leaders in polling and surveys, to get a deeper understanding on several points: how financially secure people are (or are not), the predictors of financial insecurity, and the degree to which people perceive that they have control over their financial lives. Gallup surveyed more than 15,000 people in 10 very different countries, across a range of economies, between January and March 2018 to take an unprecedented look at personal finance and how people perceive their situation.

To gauge financial security, the Gallup pollsters asked two simple questions: first, how long respondents could cover their basic needs (through savings or by selling assets) if they lost their income; and second, whether making repayments against debts does or does not make it difficult for them to pay for other things they need. We recognize of course that financial security is a complex and contextual phenomenon: A person with the same level of income and assets might be financially secure in one country but insecure in another, depending on available social protection safety net services and a host of other variables. Gallup chose those two simple but powerful questions in order to maintain comparability across 10 survey countries (Bangladesh, Chile, Colombia, Greece, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam) that had been chosen for their diversity.

Financial control is the extent to which people perceive that they are in control of and can influence their financial situation. In the Gallup survey, financial control levels are measured as the percentage of respondents who gave a positive response to at least eight out of the 10 dimensions below. 
<h3>Dimensions of Financial Control</h3>
<ol>
 	<li>Do you think that no matter what you do, your financial situation will stay the same?*</li>
 	<li>Do you think that you can overcome any financial problem that you might face?</li>
 	<li>When you spend money on something you don’t need, do you usually regret the decision later?*</li>
 	<li>Have you tried to save money in the past, but been unable to do so?*</li>
 	<li>Do you avoid thinking about how you are going to pay for things in the future?*</li>
 	<li>Do you think you will EVER be able to pay back all the money you owe?</li>
 	<li>Do you enjoy planning what you are going to do with your money in the future?</li>
 	<li>Are you satisfied with how much input you have in financial decisions in your household?</li>
 	<li>If you had a financial emergency today, such as a medical emergency, do you think you would be able to find the money to pay for it?</li>
 	<li>Do you have people in your life who can help you financially if you ever need it?</li>
</ol>
*Reverse-scored item.

Finally, to derive predictors of financial insecurity, the Gallup survey cross-tabulated self-reported financial insecurity with demographic data (age, sex, education level, marital status) and with the self-reported degree of perceived financial control to see what patterns might emerge. To dig into all of these indicators (and others), see the full dataset <a href="http://news.gallup.com/reports/233399/gallup-global-financial-health-study-2018.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

In an initial analysis full of surprises, two of the biggest were these: The relationship between account ownership and perceived financial control is weak at best. (See Figure 1). And especially in the emerging markets—places where the financial inclusion community has focused the most attention—people’s access to financial services appears to have little correlation with financial security. (See Figure 2)

In Kenya, for example, 82 percent of people have an account, but only 9 percent are financially secure. And in Bangladesh, 50 percent of people are financially included (that is, have an account), but just 7 percent are financially secure. Even in the United States, which also spends significant philanthropic and government funds to increase financial health, only 33 percent are secure despite the fact that 93 percent have an account.

Figure 1: Account Ownership and Perceived Financial Control

<img class=" size-full wp-image-25662 aligncenter" src="https://content.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/figure-1-acct-ownership-and-percd-control.jpeg" alt="Graph of account ownership and perceieved financial control." width="720" height="540" />

Figure 2: Account Ownership and Financial Security

<img class=" size-full wp-image-25663 aligncenter" src="https://content.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/fig-2-account-ownership-and-financial-security.jpeg" alt="Graph of Account Ownership and Financial Security" width="720" height="540" />
<h4> </h4>
<h3>The Implications for the Financial Inclusion Agenda</h3>
So, does this mean we should give up on financial inclusion? No. This research is a point-in-time assessment and would benefit from being repeated across a wider set of countries and over a longer period, to see how trends in account ownership and financial control and security relate. In addition, account ownership does seem to make clients happy – in response to the survey’s question, “Overall, do you think that using the services of a bank or other financial institution improves your life?” most account owners (bank and mobile) responded positively. That might mean that they appreciate saving time by avoiding queuing to pay simple bills, or by sending or receiving money quickly to and from loved ones.

But though these benefits can be useful, they are not the ultimate goal of financial inclusion. Worse, these findings could also mean that it’s easier to borrow or spend for frivolous things or to lay bets on sports games, which would likely do little to increase feelings of control, and would certainly not boost financial security.

Further, financial inclusion has always been an overly simplistic term. Virtually all definitions of financial inclusion stress the importance of low-income people using a full suite of financial tools that enable them to manage daily cash flows, save and plan for the short and long term, take advantage of opportunities, and protect against risk. Inclusion and account ownership are just the tip of the spear and perhaps have been too much the focus in the field to date.

The balancing act in this field has always been between two related goals. On the one hand, there’s the need to identify the most efficient way to reach the largest possible number of low-income people. And on the other hand, there’s the need to make those products as useful and custom-tailored as possible, enabling clients to grow their businesses, improve their ability to send their children to school, obtain timely medical care, or otherwise respond effectively to their individual life circumstances.

Although much necessary work has been done to walk back the previous over-hyping of microcredit as a silver bullet for poverty alleviation, it seems unwise to over-correct and limit our focus to inclusion, without keeping in mind the intended outcomes. Perhaps it’s time for those of us working in this field to expand our views beyond basic financial tools and to expand or renew our focus on the quality of those tools and the outcomes they enable. Our current nomenclature is not clear or reflective of our shared goals.
<h3>What Comes Next?</h3>
MetLife Foundation requested that Gallup make the dataset publicly available. Gallup has enthusiastically encouraged researchers to use the data and share the results. The Center for Financial Inclusion team is planning to dig through these 15,000 survey responses and produce a brief later this summer, to highlight what the data says about the relationship between financial services use, attitudes toward these services, and financial health. For this deep dive, the subjective nature of the survey—which focuses on perceptions rather than empirical data—presents challenges but also an opportunity to understand the client perspective.

For MetLife Foundation, we want to make sure that our efforts remain ultimately focused on the point of it all: building the capacity of more people around the world to live financially healthy lives. As with physical health, the thinking about financial health is evolving: Different ideas and assumptions from our field will certainly join the food pyramid and other examples of discarded conventional wisdom in the archives of outdated theories. Our job is to continue learning and supporting others to keep doing their best work, too.

This data on financial control and security offers the industry one lens into financial health and wellness—in the same way the Apple Watch might provide a different behavioral nudge toward fitness than the Fitbit or Garmin. With all of these different approaches, we can build an inclusive world that works better to enable positive financial outcomes for end-users. We’re excited to see how this data adds to and catalyzes this conversation on financial health, and we look forward to seeing where these new observations take our industry.

Download the Gallup dataset <a href="http://news.gallup.com/reports/233399/gallup-global-financial-health-study-2018.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Does Greater Inclusion Lead to Financial Health? New Research Raises Pointed Questions for the Industry

MetLife Foundation

Kenya

Sub-Saharan Africa

Enabling Environment

Financial Health

Resilience

Trends

Blog Post

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

Global Findex

Access Usage Gap

Mobile Banking

Payments

&gt; Posted by <a href="http://ifmrlead.org/anisha/">Anisha Singh</a> and <a href="http://ifmrlead.org/suraj-nair/">Suraj Nair</a>, Senior Research Associate and Research Manager, IFMR LEAD

Patel, 62, father of two, spends an hour learning how to use mobile money wallet A from his daughter. The interface, navigations and services offered are all quite new to him. The next day, he tries to pay for a taxi but finds the taxi provider only accepts mobile money wallet B. He’s quite confident he should be able to use wallet B as the knowledge of how to use A is still fresh in his mind. However, he struggles with navigating the new platform and is unable to locate certain payment options. He’s also apprehensive to try out different keys as he wants to be careful not to transfer money incorrectly. Giving up, Patel pays in cash and waits for his daughter to return home to teach him how to use mobile money wallet B.

In India, in both urban and rural settings, among men and women, this challenge is all too common, especially among older adults. <a href="http://ifmrlead.org/process-mapping-and-evaluation-of-digital-financial-services-in-india/">New research</a> from IFMR LEAD and J.P. Morgan finds that while digital literacy is a massive obstacle to financial inclusion, so is applying already gained skills to unfamiliar products; digital literacy does not necessarily transfer well from one platform to another.

<a href="http://businessworld.in/article/Digital-India-A-Stepping-Stone-Towards-Digital-Economy-Financial-Inclusion/20-02-2017-113183/">Ongoing efforts</a> toward increasing adoption are in vain without ensuring the usability of products and services. Usability centers on the product’s interface and how intuitive and convenient it is. Accordingly, supply-side efforts have focused on building interactive interfaces with the latest features to streamline and digitize everyday payment needs. On the other side of the coin, perhaps most important of all, is consumer digital and financial literacy. The Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Government have taken certain measures to enhance digital literacy, such as the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM), which provides digital literacy training to citizens across the country, and the National Centre for Financial Education (NCFE), which works to expand financial education in schools, workplaces, and the general population through awareness-building and trainings.

Despite these measures, Patel’s inability to successfully transfer digital skills between platforms is mirrored by many across the country today. This challenge is amplified when extended beyond mobile money wallets to between different types of digital applications.

A <a href="http://ifmrlead.org/process-mapping-and-evaluation-of-digital-financial-services-in-india/">recent pilot</a> aimed to assess transferability of skills for smart-phone owners with varying levels of mobile money usage. The pilot assessed transferability across age groups, gender, urbanicity (rural and urban) and levels of income volatility. Participants were provided extensive training on one mobile wallet (including on how to create an account, send money, collect money, and scan and pay), with the ability to freely navigate the application themselves, and then tested on their ability to perform core platform functions. Afterwards, participants were introduced to a new mobile money platform and asked to perform the same functions.
<h2>What did we find?</h2>
Building digital literacy skills by on-boarding users to one particular application is not adequate, the pilot uncovered. Participants in the 40+ age bracket, across gender, urbanicity, and income volatility levels found it difficult to transfer their knowledge from one digital platform to another. Participants in younger age brackets found it relatively easier, but still struggled with certain functionalities such as transferring money and scanning to pay. This has significant implications, not just for the individuals involved but also for the goal of a less-cash and digital India.
<h2>What should be done?</h2>
Digital literacy training initiatives, whether through common services centers, community gatherings, or other human touch agents, should consider imparting wider ICT skills rather than product or even device-based knowledge. Imparting digital literacy the way it is approached today for existing technologies such as mobile wallets runs the risk of losing effectiveness with the constant roll-out of newer features, technologies, and products. Additionally, training for older population segments should make more resources available to enhance their confidence and comfort with digital technologies, thus encouraging them to experiment with new features.

Of course, training requirements are easier to talk about than to implement, especially when considering a wide-ranging population such as that of India. All the more, service providers need to incorporate usability and digital literacy-building into product design. Training can be built into the product and customer experience. Whilst maintaining unique interfaces, each application can include short tutorials upon installation highlighting navigation patterns and features, as well as more detailed and accessible tutorials and FAQ sections. Ultimately, more digitally capable customers will mean more active customers.

Beyond the provider level, product development guidelines can be formulated to ensure basic transactional aspects are consistent across all mobile money and other digital application interfaces. In terms of standardization, whilst developing applications in regional languages is important, specific icons can be developed and used consistently across platforms to depict the basic transactions. This also helps to ensure that individuals with low literacy or who are unable to read in English can still navigate their way around and perform transactions successfully across different applications.

Finally, for all interventions, investments into understanding what consumers prefer and find easiest to use in terms of product design would go a long way.

For more details on this research and its findings, please visit the <a href="http://ifmrlead.org/process-mapping-and-evaluation-of-digital-financial-services-in-india/">IFMR LEAD website</a>.

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2017/12/18/how-successful-are-banking-agents-in-bringing-digital-financial-services-to-new-customers-in-india/">How Successful Are Banking Agents in Bringing Digital Financial Services to New Customers in India?</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2017/11/27/whats-in-it-for-me-increasing-the-value-proposition-of-fintech-for-merchants-in-india/">What's In It For Me? Increasing the Value Proposition of Fintech for Merchants in India</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/05/17/for-successful-financial-inclusion-in-india-build-customer-financial-capability/">For Successful Financial Inclusion in India, Build Customer Financial Capability</a>

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The Flip Side of Digital: Are Customers “Interoperable”?

Credit Provision

Delivery Channels

Digital Financial Services

I have been an inclusive insurance enthusiast ever since I worked for Opportunity International and witnessed the experiments that later became <a href="https://microensure.com/">MicroEnsure</a>. In those early days, Richard Leftley framed insurance as the missing piece in the game of Chutes &amp; Ladders (Snakes &amp; Ladders for those outside the U.S.). He likened credit and savings to ladders that could provide a way up for those with lower incomes --but without insurance, each borrower or saver was just one disaster away from slipping back down into destitution. I remember his—at the time—revolutionary concept of paying insurance claims within 10 days or less. He would say that days-to-payout was the only report he wanted on his desk every morning. (Today, of course, payouts can be automatic or even come pre-loss.)

As is often the case with breakthroughs, Richard, of course, was not alone. Thanks to many innovators, an entire industry has emerged with profitable models reaching millions of people, and there is a growing understanding around the world, across social strata of the impact that insurance can have for families, communities and societies. The NGOs that pioneered microinsurance spurred the interest of commercial giants such as Allianz, AXA, MetLife, Swiss Re and Zurich, which have lent their considerable weight to solving the business challenges of extending insurance to underserved and unserved customers. Market catalysts such as A2ii, MicroInsurance Centre, MicroInsurance Network, ILO’s Impact Insurance Facility, and Cenfri have offered insights on everything from the customer experience, to good product design, to proving the business case, to creating an enabling regulatory environment for reaching new insurance markets.

Into this mix comes a new paper on inclusive insurance from the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion and the Institute of International Finance. <a href="http://bit.ly/2AFOUZa">Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers</a> gives a global snapshot of the inclusive finance sector, examining how providers have extended service offerings using new technologies and innovative business models, and highlighting the challenges that persist. It suggests how the industry can further expand its reach to this massive, virtually untapped potential market. The study focuses on actual on-the-ground experience of providers in emerging markets.

Here are a few of the report’s main takeaways:

Insurers are bullish on the size of the market opportunity. Using Allianz’ model, which refers to the inclusive insurance market as those with the bottom 60 percent of incomes, we estimate the potential market to be 3.8 billion people worldwide (though more study is needed on segmentation). Insurers report feeling great personal satisfaction about the social impact of their products -- but by far the most significant drivers of inclusive insurance are the base of the pyramid (BOP) market size and the rise of the middle class. In fact, Martin Hintz, previously with Allianz, said, “Don’t get distracted by charity! There is a clear business case.”

<a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/market-graphic.png"><img class="wp-image-24870" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/market-graphic.png" alt="" width="614" height="349" /></a>

Insurtech goes far beyond mobile payments. Insurers are using tech innovations to build new products, increase trust among customers, and more. In Colombia, prospective DaviPlata customers can send an SMS with their national ID number and they are instantly enrolled. In Indonesia, robo-calls and automated text messages teach Allianz customers about the products they are already enrolled in and build customer trust and loyalty.  In Zimbabwe, weather satellite systems provide data that allows Blue Marble Microinsurance to offer parametric insurance with automatic payments in the event of drought – without customers even submitting a claim! And all around the world, new sources of data are available on customers who were previously invisible, with sophisticated analytics making it possible to design products to meet their needs.

Simplicity is the best innovation for the BOP. Insurers are cutting down costs and reaching new customers by simplifying processes and products. MicroEnsure has designed life, accident and hospitalization products with no exclusions, which dramatically reduces the cost of enrollment. Some policies are based only on phone numbers, without even capturing customer names, ages or any demographic information. Recognizing that lower income people often prefer to pay for things in small increments, Lorenzo Chan of Pioneer Life in the Philippines promotes “insurance in a sachet”—a concept that in many emerging markets is yielding trials of micro terms, micro cover and micro payments. And Aviva looks at the full range of services people need at different life stages (not limited to insurance), and bundles them together into simple packages that, in their words, “kill complexity.” Take, for example, the wonderfully named YOU, ME and WE products in Poland. In the case of WE, the needs of young families are met through a bundle that includes insurance for property, education, childcare, critical illness for parents and children, disability, and household goods.

New customers are being identified. AXA has shared a <a href="https://cdn.axa.com/www-axa-com%2F57b5a3a4-c7cc-4dea-97c9-5f7d9f47232c_sheforshield_final-web2015.pdf">landscape study</a> on the women’s market for insurance, predicting the annual premium value of the women’s global market to grow six to nine times by 2030 to between $569 and $874 billion. Met99 is reaching rural residents in Mexico by partnering with the Government. And insurers are looking at the customer journey for low-income mass markets for health insurance in India as well as for niche markets such as motorcyclists working in the sharing economy.

Insurers see new opportunities to move risk models from protection to prevention. This is especially apparent in regards to climate risk. As an example, Blue Marble Microinsurance, Swiss Re, and others are not only ensuring that farmers have agriculture insurance and other financial services, but they are also working with a range of partners to provide access to farm inputs that help guard against climate risk through water conservation methods and other climate-smart strategies.

Distribution channels make or break inclusive insurance. Microinsurance was first distributed through community organizations, microfinance institutions and cooperatives that addressed the last mile challenge and served hard-to-reach customers. In the last 10 years, mobile network operators have stepped in with the convenience of payments by mobile phones and banks have begun to cross-sell as part of their bouquet of services. Insurers are working with retailers, postal banks, workplaces, governments, and everyone you can think of to aggregate customers and find convenient ways to reach them. CARD Pioneer Microinsurance (CPMI) in the Philippines works with over 70 distribution partners.

This last point is one of the key findings of the report -- that insurers are doing their part, but they can only do so much on their own. They need partners from the private, public, and non-profit sectors to come alongside to make protection possible for all. In his foreword, Denis Duverne of AXA writes that “Informal risk management is ten times less efficient than formal protection mechanisms, and one single emergency can force families to sell productive assets, move back to the village, remove children from school to help the household earn extra income or go back into poverty.” With these kinds of consequences, the real life game of Chutes &amp; Ladders takes on added urgency, and all those who can play a part in ensuring protection for the vulnerable should seek an insurer to partner with. The insurers are ready.

To learn more about inclusive insurance, from the many sources doing good work around the world, see the curated <a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/inclusive-insurance-resource-list-pdf-final.pdf">Resource List</a> that accompanies <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/publications-a-resources/browse-publications/973-inclusive-insurance-closing-the-protection-gap-for-emerging-customers">the paper</a> to get a glimpse of the wealth of material that insurance experts have produced.

&nbsp;

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2017/04/13/making-microinsurance-work-in-bangladesh-three-takeaways/">Making Microinsurance Work in Bangladesh: Three Takeaways</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2014/10/06/bundling-mhealth-info-and-microinsurance-to-improve-health-outcomes-in-kenya/">Bundling mHealth Info and Microinsurance to Improve Health Outcomes in Kenya</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2014/08/29/the-formula-for-mobile-microinsurance-success-in-senegal-and-pakistan/">The Forumula for Mobile Microinsurance Success in Senegal and Pakistan</a>

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers

Mainstreaming Financial Inclusion: Best Practices

Insurance

Insurance Companies

We use the term “inclusive  insurance” to encompass many different approaches to reaching the unserved,  underserved, vulnerable, or low-income populations in emerging markets with appropriate and affordable insurance products. These range from microinsurance for people with very little disposable income to new  products and  services for an emerging middle class around the globe who have not been served by traditional  insurance. Based on insights from written submissions and in-depth interviews with 30 people across 22 institutions, this report invites us to re-think the concept of insurance and its fundamental role in society.
<h2>Major Findings</h2>
In  the  broadest  terms,  the  challenges  of  providing  insurance  to  lower-income  population segments are similar to those of providing mainstream insurance: identifying, understanding, and connecting with customers; providing relevant products; and carrying out the administrative work of collecting premiums and paying claims. For customers at the base of the economic pyramid, the small incomes from which premiums must come require insurers to solve these challenges in highly cost-efficient ways. Adding to the intensive cost pressure, several factors amplify the challenge of connecting with these customers: their remote locations, lower education levels, and lack of experience with formal institutions.

Strategies for effectively serving this target market include:
<ul>
 	<li>Simplifying products so they are easy to understand, easy to enroll in, and easy to claim against. For institutions, such simple products engender trust and are lower cost to provide.</li>
 	<li>Finding new distribution channels and aggregators-from telcos to farmer cooperatives to banks—to identify and connect with low-income customers.</li>
 	<li>Leveraging digital channels and new “insurtech” (insurance technology) innovations to connect with, and serve, low-income customers.</li>
 	<li>Implementing new business models and products to provide and administer the risk mitigation solutions at scale that meet low-income customers’ needs.</li>
</ul>
This report is part of a two-year initiative, <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/programs-a-projects/mainstreaming-financial-inclusion">Mainstreaming Financial Inclusion: Best Practices</a>, to help advance efforts of financial institutions to reach customers at the base of the economic pyramid. This report was completed in partnership with the <a href="http://www.iif.org">Institute of International Finance</a>, and made possible with support from <a href="https://www.metlife.com/about/corporate-responsibility/metlife-foundation/index.html">MetLife Foundation</a>.

Institute of International Finance

Inclusive insurance

Report

&nbsp;

Demonetization had a strongly positive effect on financial inclusion, leading to increases in account registration and active and advanced use of registered accounts, according to our data. Perhaps surprisingly, given some of the discussion in the financial inclusion community over the last year predicting demonetization increasing electronic payments, these account registration increases were mostly among bank accounts rather than mobile wallets.

InterMedia’s fourth annual Financial Inclusion Insights (FII) survey was underway on November 9, 2016 when approximately 85 percent of the banknotes in circulation in India were invalidated by the policy known as demonetization. The invalid notes had to be deposited in a bank or exchanged for new ones at banks and other financial institutions. The timing of demonetization in relation to InterMedia’s activities presented an opportunity for us to measure the impact on financial inclusion using a panel survey of 1,600 randomly selected individuals in the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. These respondents were first interviewed for the FII survey roughly one month prior to Nov. 9, and then re-interviewed seven months later.

<a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/figure-1.png"><img class="wp-image-24757 alignright" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/figure-1.png" alt="" width="617" height="391" /></a>Before demonetization, nearly half of the respondents were nonusers of financial institutions. After demonetization, only 19 percent remained nonusers (see Figure 1). These former nonusers advanced to the access and trial stage of the customer journey, which increased from 53 to 81 percent of the respondents. Nearly all of those who had accessed an account also held an account registered in their name, as the proportion of account holders rose from 51 percent to 78 percent of the panelists. Active users of financial accounts (used an account in the past 90 days) increased to 51 percent of respondents after demonetization, from 34 percent pre-demonetization. Active users who used advanced services (beyond deposit and withdrawal) grew substantially, but remained a small portion of the study group overall. Thus, after demonetization, more customers advanced to every stage of the customer journey − from access and trial of financial services, to account registration, to active use of registered accounts, to active use of advanced services − compared to pre-demonetization.

Demonetization had a strongly positive effect on increasing financial inclusion relative to previous policies. While the data collected for this study is not nationally representative and, therefore, not directly comparable to previous annual surveys of India implemented by InterMedia, the change in the proportion of study group members who became registered bank account holders after demonetization exceeds the changes observed previously. For example, the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) in 2014 coincided with only a <a href="http://finclusion.org/uploads/file/reports/India%20Wave%204%20Report_8-Jun-2017.pdf">34 percent increase</a> in the proportion of the population that held a registered financial account over 2013-2016, compared to a 53 percent increase after demonetization.

All demographic groups showed gains in financial inclusion after demonetization. A greater share of nearly all demographic groups advanced at all stages of the customer journey post-demonetization. The only exception to this overall finding was the lack of movement from active use to advanced active use among respondents living below the <a href="https://www.povertyindex.org/country/india">$2.50/day poverty line</a>.

Financial inclusion increased fastest among women and rural residents. A critical measure of social inclusion is whether or not achievement gaps exist between demographic groups. Prior to demonetization, gaps in advancement along the customer journey existed for women, rural dwellers, and those below the $2.50 per day poverty line. After demonetization, the demographic gaps shifted as follows:
<ul>
 	<li>Gender: Women advanced to later stages of the customer journey at rates that exceeded their male counterparts (see Figure 2). This movement reduced the gender gaps among the respondents at each stage of the journey. However, the increases were not large enough to eliminate the gap entirely at any stage; more men are still financially included than women.</li>
 	<li>Locality: Rural residents advanced to the access and registration stages of the customer journey faster than their urban counterparts, which eliminated the locality gaps at the access and registration stages. While rural respondents advanced on the journey to active use more frequently than urbanites, these gains were not sufficient to eliminate the urban vs. rural gaps at later stages of the customer journey.</li>
 	<li>Poverty status: Unlike the gaps for gender and locality, the gap between respondents living above and below the poverty line widened after demonetization at each stage of the customer journey, because the rate of advance was greater among respondents living above the poverty line than among those below the line.</li>
</ul>
[caption id="attachment_24764" align="aligncenter" width="614"]<a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/figure-2-asdf.png"><img class="wp-image-24764" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/figure-2-asdf.png" alt="" width="614" height="280" /></a> (click to enlarge)[/caption]

The requirement to exchange demonetized notes provided a strong impetus for financial engagement that overrode tendencies towards non-engagement. The forthcoming 2017 annual Financial Inclusion Insights (FII) tracking survey will provide new data to evaluate whether these phenomena also occurred at a national level and were sustained into the latter half of 2017.

Respondents most often registered new bank accounts and Post Office Bank accounts. Mobile money showed a much smaller increase in users. The increase in the number of Post Office and Bank users may or may not be a lasting change now that all demonetized notes have been exchanged. The InterMedia team plans to monitor 2018 data during its annual FII survey in order to examine whether or not accounts were closed or fell inactive to assess the resilience of this impact. The cash shortage did contribute to increased mobile money use, but not to the degree approaching the envisioned “cashless society.” More effort is required to spur mobile money adoption, particularly among less well-off consumer segments.

Consumers reported that demonetization was disruptive but necessary. In the immediate aftermath of the announcement of demonetization, the ensuing cash shortage spurred widespread reports of economic disruption, <a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/11/25/demonetization-in-india-is-causing-more-than-economic-harm/">political and social challenges</a>, and, for certain segments and industries (for example, trucking and logistics), <a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-demonetization-with-no-cash-on-hand-4-lakh-trucks-stranded-on-highways-2273414">complete, though temporary, paralysis</a>. The study found that while respondents confirmed that the cash shortage was indeed disruptive, it may not have been as disruptive as some news accounts suggested. Despite difficulties, a majority of respondents agreed with the government’s broadcast rationale, that demonetization was a necessary step to combat “black money.” Majorities also agreed that the effects of demonetization were more beneficial than disruptive, the demonetization policy was successfully implemented, and cash will be used less often in the future for routine purposes.

Overall, respondents perceived demonetization as a necessary and beneficial policy, despite the economic disruption it caused. These perceptions may be affected by high levels of support for Prime Minister Modi’s party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the three states where the panel survey was implemented. Nationally-representative statistics on demonetization will be gathered by the FII India 2017 Annual Survey.

Nearly all merchants remain cash-dependent. When asked about which groups benefited from demonetization, consumers perceived the least benefit for merchants. These perceptions were supported by data from the survey of merchants:
<ul>
 	<li>Over 90 percent of merchants only accepted cash during demonetization. Sixty-five percent of these merchants reported that their businesses suffered due to the shortage of cash.</li>
 	<li>Of the merchants who reported only accepting cash during demonetization, less than half reported that accepting cashless payments would have helped their businesses.</li>
 	<li>Merchants reported that a tiny proportion (less than 3 percent) of their customers use cashless payments, and a primary reason for not accepting cashless payments was a lack of perceived demand from customers.</li>
</ul>
Demonetization had little immediate effect on the prevalence of cashless payments. A small portion of the study group – 7 percent – adopted cashless payments to facilitate transactions during the cash shortage after demonetization. Merchants generally do not see a need to adopt electronic payment products in the face of low consumer demand. However, the few merchants who did adopt these products and services found them valuable, which indicates that barriers to uptake are not product-specific but related to limited utility in the current context of early adoption.

In conclusion, a little more than a year after the roll-out of the demonetization, the FII data shows immediate impacts from the policy on financial inclusion. We look forward to seeing what our annual 2018 demand-side survey has to say regarding the Indian population's engagement with financial services.

What do you observe and what do you think we may see in 2018?  We are eager to hear from you!

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/11/16/what-does-indias-demonetization-experiment-mean-for-financial-inclusion/">What Does India’s Demonetization Experiment Mean for Financial Inclusion?</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/11/25/demonetization-in-india-is-causing-more-than-economic-harm/">Demonetization in India Is Causing More than Economic Harm</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2017/01/18/what-does-effective-human-touch-look-like-in-indias-digital-age/">What Does Effective Human Touch Look Like in India’s Digital Age?</a>

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

India’s Demonetization: One Year Later, What Was the Impact on Financial Inclusion?

Policy, Regulation and Government Initiatives

Although financial services are rapidly going digital, some customers, especially those new to the formal financial system or with lower levels of education, may still desire to interface with people—to build trust, to troubleshoot problems, and to receive advice on their financial lives. CFI Fellow Misha Sharma is exploring the question of effective human touch in digital financial services as India transitions to a digital age.

Webinar: Agents of Change: The Human Touch India

CFI Research Fellows Program

Human Touch

Women

Webinar

&gt; Posted by Anisha Singh, Senior Research Associate, IFMR LEAD

<img class="alignright wp-image-24670" style="border: 0 solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/thumb_72f989620eb54da896649a8461a443a6.jpg" alt="" width="515" height="343" />

Want to receive payments from customers? There’s an app for that. Want to make payments to suppliers? There’s an app for that. Customer wants to pay you one week from now? Scramble to take out diary and note down payment receivable. Customer is not contactable after one week? Oh well, that’s the end of that.

Among merchants in India, widespread awareness of available digital financial services options has not translated into usage of these services. The core challenge here is making digital platforms more inclusive and relevant to their daily lives. While India has made immense progress in transitioning to a less cash-reliant financial ecosystem, recent research concludes that the services on offer in the country do not directly address all relevant merchant pain points and thereby fall short of providing a compelling value proposition for them to make the switch from cash. This shortcoming hasn’t been for lack of trying. Researchers and providers have identified and rolled out various new value-added services that could help increase this value proposition. However, for merchants in India, there is still one key transaction type left unaddressed: how can informal arrangements, such as offering goods on credit, be included in digital services?
<h3>What’s at the heart of merchant transactions?</h3>
Recent research by IFMR LEAD in the space of digital finance for micro-merchants across urban and rural regions of four Indian states suggests that as many as 20 percent of micro-merchants use extensions of credit as their primary transaction method with suppliers as well as with customers. For the majority of merchants surveyed, over 20 percent of the value of their monthly transactions with suppliers and customers is on credit. Merchants typically extend credit to customers for up to two weeks and receive credit from suppliers for up to a month. Credit from suppliers tends to be more formal than credit to customers. Merchants often sign a promissory note while taking goods on credit from suppliers, whereas they deem a simple note in their inventory books sufficient for extending credit to customers.
<h3>What does an ideal digital product look like for merchants?</h3>
There is much excitement and openness among merchants to experiment with digital modes and include payment applications such as mobile wallets and QR codes into their daily business operations. However to make it worthwhile for merchants to transact digitally, it is necessary to build a holistic service that includes credit extension. We collected first-hand insights from merchants to understand their preferences and concerns regarding such a service:
<ul>
 	<li>On the supplier side, merchants were not in favor of direct debits from their accounts at a later date for goods received on credit. However, a majority noted the importance of a reminder service to make payments in the form of SMS messages or push notifications. Product provisions to record inventory purchased on credit, make standard monthly digital payments, and record signatures from suppliers for the verbal credit agreements were the next most preferred features.</li>
 	<li>‘Facebook’ for merchants: A significant proportion of merchants also indicated their preference for a networking platform wherein they can interact with their suppliers through personalized user accounts. By logging into their account, they would like to be able to see all their suppliers, open chat conversations with individual suppliers, and send them push notifications requesting additional stock or extension of credit terms and such.</li>
 	<li>On the consumer side, merchants are concerned with customers not paying them back and having no way to trace them. The majority of merchants stressed the value of a reminder service through SMS or push notifications to alert customers of their pending payments and allow them to make the transaction digitally without visiting the merchant..</li>
 	<li>Surprisingly, merchants did not express a need for an inventory management component to record goods given on credit and payments collected from customers. Merchants believed that a strong back-end system through inventory management with suppliers would sufficiently translate into better management of credit terms with customers.</li>
 	<li>Across the board, merchants stressed their requests for these features to come at a low cost with low transaction fees. Furthermore, they indicated that services should incorporate credit limits on the amounts that can be extended in supplier and customer interactions and the potential for credit limits to be monitored and enhanced based on transaction history.</li>
</ul>
With high awareness but low usage of digital platforms among merchants in India, exploring such value-added services for merchants is a must to ensure greater uptake and continued usage. However, to ensure sustainability of such products, it is equally imperative to explore ‘stickiness’ for customers and other players in the merchant ecosystem as well.

This post draws on IFMR LEAD’s work in collaboration with J.P. Morgan on '<a href="http://ifmrlead.org/process-mapping-and-evaluation-of-digital-financial-services-in-india/">Digital Financial Inclusion and Consumer Capabilities in India</a>' and with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth on '<a href="http://ifmrlead.org/the-evolving-financial-ecosystem-for-micro-merchants-in-india/">The Evolving Financial Ecosystem for Micro-Merchants in India</a>'.

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2017/07/10/how-a-human-touch-agent-can-make-a-difference-in-promoting-digital-financial-services/">How a Human Touch Agent Can Make a Difference in Promoting Digital Financial Services</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/08/11/exploring-responsible-agent-management-in-india/">Exploring Responsible Agent Management in India</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/09/12/digitizing-self-help-groups-in-india/">Digitizing Self-Help Groups in India</a>

&nbsp;

What’s in It for Me? Increasing the Value Proposition of Fintech for Merchants in India

Credit

Entrepreneurs of MSMEs

Financial Service Providers

Financial Technology

MSME/SME Finance

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.

Pakistan

Abhishek Agrawal

Chief Regional Officer, India

Amit Gupta

Senior Manager, Credit and Business Processes

Andrés Calderon

Vice President, Risk and Credit Analysis

Archana Kejriwal

Senior Specialist, India Program Management and Client Education

Mona Kapoor

Director, Digital Strategy and Channels

Dwijo Goswami

Kathleen Yaworsky

Prateek Shrivastava

Vikas Raj

Alternative Data

Banks

Data Analytics

Financial Inclusion Strategy

Impact Investing

Microfinance

Microfinance Institutions

Underwriting

Article

Case Study

India has been a priority for Accion’s work since our first project there in 2005. With a large, diverse, young, and entrepreneurial population, India is similar in many ways to other parts of the world in which we are active. At the same time, the country also offers unique opportunities across the entire spectrum of our experience and expertise.

In recent years, India’s government has made a concerted effort to bring its entire population into the formal economy, and has dedicated significant resources to policies and <a href="https://www.accion.org/the-game-changing-innovation-that-could-bring-financial-services-to-millions-in-india">technology platforms</a> to help achieve this goal. Progress has been impressive: according to the <a href="https://globalfindex.worldbank.org/">World Bank Global Findex</a>, between 2011 and 2017, the share of adults in India with a bank account more than doubled, reaching 80%. 

And yet, the same Findex reports that in 2017, India had the world’s second-highest number of unbanked people, and the highest number of dormant bank accounts. There is still so much more work to do to ensure that everyone in India has access to financial services that meet their needs, and Accion is committed to helping make this happen. Examples of how we are doing this include:
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400">Expanding the availability of safe, responsible microcredit, especially in rural areas. The Smart Campaign, a Center for Financial Inclusion initiative committed to embedding client protection principles into the financial inclusion industry, has worked with microfinance institutions across India to assess their client protection policies and certify those that adhere to Smart Campaign standards. One example is Ujjivan, based in Bengaluru, which was one of the first microfinance institutions certified by the Smart Campaign, and has since become a small finance bank.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400">Capacity-building for entrepreneurs, through our Dialogue on Business program, which uses engaging, interactive, multimedia methods for training microentrepreneurs in financial education and business management skills. </li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400">Serving the “missing middle” — businesses that are outgrowing what microfinance can provide, but are still too small or informal to qualify for traditional bank loans. Accion has invested in and advises Aye Finance, whose cluster-based approach to lending allows it to make well-informed and quick decisions on loan applications. Accion has also worked with Swadhaar FinServe on many projects, including helping assess its institutional readiness as it transformed its lending model.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400">Supporting innovative fintech companies that are using digital channels to provide financial services, including new delivery models for familiar products like savings accounts or microloans, or services entering the Indian market for the first time, like insurance. Accion Venture Lab’s portfolio company CreditMantri has developed a model that uses alternative data sources to boost the creditworthiness of loan applicants. Another portfolio company, Pula, is piloting crop insurance for smallholder farmers in India — using a model it developed in sub-Saharan Africa.</li>
</ul>
Having worked with dozens of financial institutions and fintech startups, Accion is excited about India’s future and about doing our part to ensure that everyone in the country has access to economic opportunity.

Accion in India: Advancing financial inclusion in one of the world’s fastest-developing economies

While access to financial services has steadily increased, three billion people are underserved by the world’s financial sector, with limited or no access to quality savings, credit, insurance, and payments. This Accion Insights paper sets out to help providers begin to address these complex challenges by providing a case for change and outlining the initial strategic and tactical steps a financial service provider can take to first assess and then enhance its data capability. This guide breaks down the multiple components required for a financial service provider to strengthen its data capabilities, while referencing the growing number of specific use cases for data-driven innovations in fostering a financially inclusive world.

Accion’s Global Advisory Solutions team developed this report with the support of the Citi Foundation.

Unlocking the Promise of Big Data to Promote Financial Inclusion - Chinese

Accion Global Advisory Solutions

Unlocking the Promise of Big Data to Promote Financial Inclusion

Citi Foundation

We recently welcomed <a href="http://www.accion.org/people/paarul-dudeja/">Paarul Dudeja</a> to the Accion Venture Lab team. As Director of Asia Investments, Paarul leads the team’s deal activity and portfolio engagement in Asia, with a focus on India.

Just before joining our team, Paarul co-founded a healthcare education enterprise in India focused on addressing the need for technically skilled healthcare professionals. Previously, Paarul was an investment officer at the International Finance Corporation, investing in financial institutions to enable sustainable growth and address development challenges. Paarul has invested across the capital spectrum as an investment professional at Vinik Asset Management, a long/short hedge fund. She began her career as an investment banking analyst with Lehman Brothers and a corporate valuation associate at S&amp;P.

Paarul has a Bachelor of Arts in Computational Finance and Economics from Franklin and Marshall College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

We are very excited to have Paarul on board and to lead us to new ventures in India, Southeast Asia, and beyond. Paarul and I chatted about her background and her pie in the sky vision for Venture Lab in the region.
<h3>Tell us more about your background – what brought you to the financial inclusion space?</h3>
Paarul: It has been a rather organic journey, actually. I started investing with a hedge fund in 2006 where the prime focus was profitability and alpha generation but as I moved to investing with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) not only was that work more meaningful at a personal level, it showed that returns and impact do not always have to be a trade-off in investing.

I then founded an education company in India to plug a gap of skilled technical workers in the healthcare space. What we noticed was that there is a huge demand by willing students, often from low-income, daily wage-earning families who wanted to invest in their education and move up the economic pyramid. But they were encumbered with a compounded disadvantage that they were also not part of the formal banking or financial system, so in many cases, they didn’t have the means to get an education.

I think financial inclusion is really the facilitating medium for every other aspect of an individual’s journey in fulfilling their potential. Financial inclusion generates the positive impact that I am excited to be a part of and through fintech investing it can also bring returns that the investor in me seeks.
<h3>What compelled you to join the Venture Lab team?</h3>
I’ve done investments in several financial companies globally and across the capital spectrum. The last decade has been an interesting time to invest in the financial industry which went through a dramatic peak and trough, in the US and then globally. As traditional structures became weighed down by over-regulation, innovation from the fintech space began to change and democratize financial activities. Venture Lab is at the forefront of helping early-stage startups experiment - which is where the action is.

I also think we have a fantastic team – there’s a strong sense of intellectual curiosity and drive to reach impact!
<h3>What excites you most about fintech for financial inclusion in India and other parts of Asia?</h3>
During my time with IFC, I did some investment work in South Asian countries like Bangladesh, the so-called birthplace of microfinance and innovations such as bKash. It was a great opportunity to empirically see how fintech innovations were advancing financial inclusion. From a fintech perspective, India at this point with India Stack is truly at the forefront of a large-scale national experiment to digitize the world of 1.2 billion people.

Asia as a whole is the most populous continent with a large unbanked population – over 430 million in Southeast Asia alone. Solving this problem, fitting together the pieces, and supporting innovative startups in creating financial solutions with far-reaching impact is thrilling.
<h3>What is your vision for Venture Lab in the region?</h3>
In 1930 Keynes wrote a short essay, “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren”. He imagined a world of economic possibilities where people solved the basic problem of fulfilling their material needs and beyond. While that dream has worked out for some segments of the population, there is a vast number still struggling.

I suppose my vision, at a loftier level for Venture Lab through our investments, is to enable a vibrant and steadfast ecosystem of fintech companies that leave no one behind.
<h3>Tell us some fun facts about yourself</h3>
I love films – black and white, color, any genre (except horror)! Really anything that compels a willing suspension of disbelief. Starting from Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, Steven’s Giant, Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso down to Miller’s Mad Max Fury Road.

I learned Russian as a child in school. Although I can no longer speak it, I can still sing May There Always be Sunshine in Russian.

I am always up for an adventure, from snorkeling with the turtles in the Gili Islands of Indonesia to zip-lining down the Great Wall of China.

--

We look forward to expanding our presence in Asia through Paarul’s leadership and we’re excited to continue building our relationship with you through Paarul.

Introducing Paarul Dudeja, Venture Lab’s Director of Asia Investments

Accion Venture Lab

South Asia

Meet the Experts

Abhishek Agrawal

Amit Gupta

Andrés Calderon

Archana Kejriwal

Mona Kapoor

Filter

Filter

Accion in India: Advancing financial inclusion in one of the world’s fastest-developing economies

Unlocking the Promise of Big Data to Promote Financial Inclusion - Chinese

Unlocking the Promise of Big Data to Promote Financial Inclusion

Introducing Paarul Dudeja, Venture Lab’s Director of Asia Investments

From the Center for Financial Inclusion

In The Economist: Hema Bansal on Over-Indebtedness in Sri Lanka

Podcast: Getting Inclusion Right Podcast with Gowri Mukherjee

Does Greater Inclusion Lead to Financial Health? New Research Raises Pointed Questions for the Industry

New Global Findex: 69 Percent of Global Population Is Banked

The Flip Side of Digital: Are Customers “Interoperable”?

Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers

Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers

India’s Demonetization: One Year Later, What Was the Impact on Financial Inclusion?

Webinar: Agents of Change: The Human Touch India

What’s in It for Me? Increasing the Value Proposition of Fintech for Merchants in India