In my wallet, I have three bank cards. When I opened the accounts, I remembered reading a vague reference to insurance, but until today, I had no idea what the insurance actually covered, how to use it, or what I’m paying for the privilege.

I have now learned I have 26 kinds of insurance coverage on those three cards. However, in spite of several dozen clicks, 90 minutes of reading, and two aborted phone calls, I still don’t understand many of the basics of when and how I can use the coverage. None of the card companies could tell me the fees I’m paying them. Some of the click paths online were circular. And every long list of claim requirements included an escape clause, allowing the insurer nearly unlimited power to deny the inexplicable benefits for which I’m unknowingly paying.

In the religion of the Internet, user experience is gospel; if there were an inquisition into my experience today, insurance would be excommunicated.
*****
Nearly nine years ago, I joined <a href="https://microensure.com/">MicroEnsure</a>, a pioneer in the field of inclusive insurance. Low-income customers in emerging markets experience risk as a fundamental fact of life. Opportunity – the focus of many a financial "inclusioneer" – is about something that doesn’t yet exist; meanwhile, risk is a present reality every day. If you’re a low-income mother in sub-Saharan Africa, risk is your breakfast, lunch, and dinner; you wake up in the morning worried if the bus driver will be drunk again, and you go to sleep hoping your rural uncle’s illness doesn’t get any worse.

The problem MicroEnsure wanted to tackle was how to protect these “emerging customers” – people in emerging markets who earn $2 to $20 per day – with sustainable solutions, since traditional insurance companies had no model to serve them. Traditional insurers have depended for decades on mandatory distribution channels: car owners must insure their vehicles, businesses their properties, and so forth. I like to call this, “making money in the dark,” where the product (like my credit card insurance) is largely hidden from view. In such an approach, customer preferences became less important to insurers. If a customer ever did really want insurance, that individual was likely to be either high-risk or a fraudster. Over time, this led to customers knowing little about their coverage, and being pushed away if they did try to access benefits. In the end, insurance became an industry that sees customers as the enemy. If you disagree, just consider that the industry calls claims “losses.” Let that sink in: when customers receive the service they paid for, insurers see a failure, not a success.

MicroEnsure, then, was clearly facing an uphill battle: we had no mandatory channels to leverage, and we had customers who faced significant risk. How could we protect customers who faced more risk than the average insured person, with less money to pay premiums, and no easy way to reach them?

The resolution we found, paradoxically, was to use these two problems to solve each other. If emerging customers faced more risk, then they would be more likely to buy products that help them, which meant that it should be easier to create channels to reach them.

The key to making the formula work was to upend the traditional insurance model. Instead of making money in the dark, we needed to make our value as clear as possible: to offer products that were easy to understand, valuable for the price, and straightforward to claim. We needed to respond to customer needs and requests quickly. We needed to be dissatisfied with low usage rates and nervous about unsustainably high profit margins. And we needed to think about our customers not only from a financial perspective, but also from social and emotional ones as well. In short, we needed to act like a company in any other industry, where customers are seen as an asset rather than a liability.
<blockquote>Instead of making money in the dark, we needed to make our value as clear as possible: to offer products that were easy to understand, valuable for the price, and straightforward to claim.</blockquote>
To be sure, there were tradeoffs to be made. Instead of paying the full cost of a customer’s loss, in most cases we paid a fixed part of it. Instead of covering many different customer needs, we limited our service to a few major ones. But by making our product and back office simpler, we also enabled scale much more quickly than traditional insurance. As a result, MicroEnsure reached more than 50 million low-income customers with their first insurance policies in less than a decade.
*****
I recently had the privilege to speak at the <a href="http://financialinclusionweek.org/cfi10/">CFI 10th Anniversary Symposium</a>, which marked an important career transition for me. Having helped MicroEnsure to build its model, I attended the Symposium on my first day as part of AXA, the world’s 2nd-largest insurance group. AXA sees that the old insurance model is limited: there are only so many mandatory insurance policies that can be sold in existing markets. And while it looks to emerging customers for growth, at the same time it recognizes that the business model for emerging customers holds some of the keys for renewing the insurance industry overall.

Which brings me to my credit card experiment.

Emerging customers who now have insurance – <a href="http://www.impactinsurance.org/about/facts-on-microinsurance">more than 500 million of them</a>, at last count – don’t often feel the way that I did today as an insurance customer. They don’t have to slog through endless jargon when the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/may/02/ghana-mobile-free-insurance">policy wording is contained in 3 SMS messages</a>. They don’t have to struggle for six weeks to get a small travel insurance claim paid, as I did last year, but can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX6TySibSU8">receive a claim payment in West Africa in two hours</a>. They are provided with clear, simple products, not sold with traditional ads that – almost unbelievably – show <a href="https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Ffile.vintageadbrowser.com%2Fl-gwjbeo488h2lj7.jpg&amp;imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vintageadbrowser.com%2Fmoney-ads-1990s&amp;docid=Xh9R6D9rEBQhiM&amp;tbnid=1Si3I3mwhFCe6M%3A&amp;vet=1&amp;w=660&amp;h=903&amp;source=sh%2Fx%2Fim">activities that aren’t covered by their policy</a>. Instead of seeing insurance as an annoyance, emerging customers tend to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FOH9E1pe9o">see it as a blessing</a>.

The reason emerging customers feel this way isn’t because they are fundamentally different from traditional customers; it’s because the industry changed to reach them in the first place. And if the changes have succeeded in reaching this new market, then – at least for me – the lessons learned are relevant for existing markets as well. Insurers will become consumer-centric, lest Amazon and Google do it for them. They will find ways to make money in the light – where customers who have 26 covers actually know that they are covered in the first place. User experience will eventually drive the insurance industry, just as it does everywhere else.

For me this is why, while the last decade has seen an explosion of micro insurance, the next decade may be when “micro” insurance becomes “macro.” On the one hand, emerging customers will continue becoming insured, as more and more commercial insurers see the <a href="https://microinsurancenetwork.org/groups/microinsurance-risk-protection-4-billion-people">size and potential of the market</a>. On the other hand, though, I’m making a bolder bet: that the emerging customer model will go mainstream.

It should be an exciting few years.

Insurance: from Micro to Macro

Sub-Saharan Africa

Inclusive insurance

Insurance

Blog Post

In celebration of its 10th anniversary, the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion asked 10 leaders in the financial inclusion community to set out their agenda for Getting Inclusion Right. The resulting essays and webinar series creates a roadmap to take financial inclusion into the next decade.

For the first virtual event in the series, Garance Wattez-Richard, Head of AXA Emerging Customers and Elisabeth Rhyne, Managing Director of CFI discussed the topics of getting insurance right and getting inclusion right from the customer’s perspective.

Webinar: Getting Inclusion Right

CFI Research Fellows Program

Webinar

For the insurance industry, 2008 is more often reminiscent of the bailout of AIG than of new beginnings. However, 2008 also launched an unexpected wave of creative destruction. This essay series not only celebrates the 10-year work of the Center for Financial Inclusion, but also  several pioneers that strive to make insurance inclusive for all: the ILO’s Impact Insurance Facility, the Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion and the Microinsurance Network—all of which began a decade  ago.

As a more recent settler on the inclusive insurance planet – although almost three years have flown by – others may keep the flame, but I would like to offer a personal opinion on the past decade of innovation, and my perspectives into what more needs to happen to combine sustainable business and social impact for those who need insurance most.

Back in 2008, microfinance institutions predominantly distributed what was then called microinsurance. MFIs provided insurers with a readily available pool of clients for credit life insurance, which reimburses the outstanding loan amount in case of death or disability of the borrower.

This was the first era of inclusive insurance.

Ten Years Gone, Ten Years to Go: Taking Inclusive Insurance from Adolescence to Adulthood

Getting Inclusion Right

Crop Insurance

Health Insurance

Life Insurance

The following post was <a href="http://blogs.accion.org/features/changing-climate-technology-provides-agricultural-insurance-farmers/">originally published</a> on the Accion blog.
Smallholder farmers are the bedrock of sub-Saharan Africa’s and Asia’s agricultural markets, providing <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4036e.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">over 80 percent of the food supply</a>, but they are growing increasingly vulnerable. Climate scientists estimate that over the next few decades, droughts will <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www2.ucar.edu/atmosnews/news/2904/climate-change-drought-may-threaten-much-globe-within-decades" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">frequently affect Africa and Asia</a> as a result of climate change. As weather conditions cause decreased stability for family farms, there is an increased need for risk mitigation solutions that can add security to the lives of those most affected.
Pula, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.accion.org/content/pula-secures-funding-global-investors-support-smallholder-farmers-africa-and-south-asia" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">one of Accion Venture Lab’s latest investments</a>, provides insurance to smallholder farmers across Africa and India, enabling income security for a population whose livelihoods depend on climate patterns. Pula uses cutting-edge technology coupled with expansive distribution partners to make large-scale agricultural insurance feasible for rural farmers.
Across their product portfolio, Pula uses various technologies, including automated voice calls to register customers, satellite imagery to monitor cloud cover, and SMS messages to provide agronomic advice. In the event of a drought or poor season, Pula uses weather data and yield samples to offer compensation to farmers for their losses. By coupling technology with large-scale distribution, Pula can make insurance practical for smallholder farmers at scale.
At Venture Lab, we’re most excited about a few core areas of the typical microinsurance value chain that Pula disrupts:
Eliminating the purchase barrier: Pula’s distribution model circumvents the challenges of customer adoption and education that we’ve seen insurers struggle with in the past. Customers read about Pula’s coverage on a sticker on the bag of seed or fertilizer they’re purchasing, and then they register their unique policy via their mobile phone. Pula’s partners put stickers on every bag sold in a region, and there’s no visible added cost to the products, simplifying the farmer’s decision-making process. To that farmer, Pula’s coverage is easy to activate and presents pure upside.
Increasing yields for customers with massive need: Pula focuses on some of the most vulnerable populations on Earth, and the insurance coverage is only the beginning of the benefit they receive from the product. By de-risking the purchase of farm inputs, such as seed, fertilizer, or credit, Pula is also able to incentivize farmers to purchase higher-quality products than they otherwise might — without the risk of failure. As a result, they can attain higher yields and incomes. Further, Pula provides the farmer with direct agronomic advice via SMS, leveraging the farmer’s GPS coordinates and their climate science team, and boosting the farmer’s yields.
Lowering the cost to serve: With its innovative distribution, Pula has the potential to reach a customer that has previously been prohibitively expensive to serve. Formerly, insuring smallholder farmers required multiple field visits to determine if conditions were right for crops to grow and to educate the farmer about the benefits of insurance, ultimately convincing them to pay for coverage. Pula can automate and significantly cut costs by assessing the farm’s weather remotely using satellite and regional yield data. Working through distributors also enables Pula to offer free and straightforward insurance coverage that is fully integrated with the input.
Venture Lab is thrilled to be working with the Pula team on their mission to provide insurance to smallholder farmers across Africa and Asia. Co-founder Rose Goslinga is a pioneer in the space, with a decade of experience and a <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.ted.com/talks/rose_goslinga_crop_insurance_an_idea_worth_seeding" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">TED talk</a> on her resume. She is working alongside Thomas Njeru, who provides actuarial experience and financial expertise as the company’s CFO.
As <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.microinsurancenetwork.org/sites/default/files/Microinsurance%20Network_Africa%20landscape%20full%20report-WEB_0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">microinsurance in most African markets hovers at or below 5 percent,</a> there is a massive market opportunity to support the world’s most vulnerable as they grow food to provide for their communities. Pula tackles the arduous task of customer awareness by partnering with known brands and uses cutting-edge technology to make the product scalable. <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.thp.org/knowledge-center/know-your-world-facts-about-hunger-poverty/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Half of the world’s hungry</a> are farming families, and Pula strives to reach those most in need with security and stability.
Venture Lab is excited to be supporting Pula as they take on one of the world’s most significant challenges.
Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2018/01/22/7-fintech-trends-to-watch-in-2018/">7 Fintech Trends to Watch</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2018/02/27/the-radical-reinvention-of-inclusive-insurance/">The Radical Reinvention of Inclusive Insurance</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2017/08/28/catalyst-fund-lessons-on-getting-early-stage-fintech-startups-investment-ready/">Cataylst Fund: Lessons on Getting Early-Stage Fintech Startups Investment-Ready</a>

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In a Changing Climate, Technology Provides a Lifeline for Farmers

Financial Service Providers

Fintechs

Index Insurance

Smallholder Farmers

Underserved Groups

This post is adapted from the recently-released publication “<a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/storage/Inclusive_Insurance_Final_2018.01.06.pdf">Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers</a>,” a joint-report from the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion and the Institute of International Finance, in partnership with MetLife Foundation.

With <a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2018/01/18/how-technology-is-propelling-inclusive-insurance/">digital channels</a> and <a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2018/01/29/inclusive-insurance-its-a-team-effort/">effective aggregators</a>, it becomes possible to offer insurance to lower-income segments. But the products themselves must also be designed with both cost control and the needs of the client segment in mind. After all, the financial margins for inclusive insurance are smaller, and the value proposition of insurance is typically tough to sell to customers.

Drawing on insights from our recently-released report <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/storage/Inclusive_Insurance_Final_2018.01.06.pdf">Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers</a>, here are a few of the key approaches for building inclusive insurance products that work for the insurer and the customer.
<h3>Simplicity</h3>
Simple products are a requirement for this market segment, and many successful products we are seeing described are extremely simple. Simplifying user interfaces is, of course, in keeping with trends in product design across companies like Alibaba, Amazon, and Walmart that allow consumers to transact with just one click. Simple insurance products are easy to understand, easy to enroll in, and easy to claim against. Simplicity is perceived as transparent and “friendly,” helping to create trust.

Simplicity is essential not only because customers love it, but also because streamlined products are easy to manage, cutting administrative costs. Assessing claims can eat up premium revenue, particularly when a customer does not have a fixed address, is illiterate, or lacks standard documentation, and we are seeing some products, such as index insurance, that pay out without a claims process. Radical insurance designers also make products that do away with exclusions. In mainstream insurance, exclusions allow insurance companies to avoid customers with disproportionate risk, bringing down premiums for the majority. However, oversight of exclusions requires expensive verification. With very small-ticket insurance policies, exclusions may simply not be worth the money it takes to manage them.
<h3>Microterms and Micropayments</h3>
The same radical thinking can also be applied to the term length of coverage. In pay-as-you-go (PAYG) models, inclusive insurers calibrate timeframes to the size of the payments consumers have available. Customers who miss a payment can re-up without penalty. BIMA offers simple PAYG products with life, personal accident, or hospital insurance coverage that can be bought in monthly blocks, much as mobile credit top-up cards are sold.

Pioneer Life President and CEO Lorenzo Chan Jr. talked with us about “insurance in a sachet.” Throughout the Philippines, as in many parts of the developing world, neighborhood stores sell tiny packets, or sachets, of detergent, shampoo, spices, and other goods. Insurance “in a sachet” allows low-income customers to purchase small levels of cover, for short terms, at low premiums.
<h3>Building Customer Acceptance – Touch and Tech</h3>
Insurers are aware that their product is “sold, not bought”— especially by customers who are new to the very concept of insurance. A standard approach to building customer interest is to bring elements of high touch alongside high tech enrollment and payment interfaces.

Particularly in rural areas, customers may have <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/storage/Uniting_TechandTouch_Kenya_FINAL.pdf">strong preferences for interacting with people</a>, especially people they already trust, and may need continuing interactions to create a feeling of connection. High tech can be used to create a sense of high touch: Allianz Indonesia’s fictional character, Mrs. Ali, provides a comfortable, homey interface with clients as “she” sends text messages to customers about their products and their lives.
<h3>Trust and Understanding</h3>
Particularly for low-income people, it is hard to consider putting the little money they have into something that may never yield a tangible benefit. As Matthew Myers of LeapFrog Investments puts it, customers view the insurer’s pitch as: “Give me money and I’ll give you a promise, rather than anything tangible right now.”

As hard as enrolling a new customer is, many providers find that renewals are equally challenging. Customers may purchase insurance, but if they don’t see a benefit or receive a claim payout, they often do not renew. Michael McCord of the Microinsurance Centre notes that a very low rate of claims (such as five percent) is a sign that customers do not understand the product or may not even realize they have coverage. One response is educating clients about the products and their benefits, both to get customers on board and to help them stay.
<h3>Bundling and Cross-Selling</h3>
Martin Hintz, former coordinator of microinsurance at Allianz, notes that one solution to increasing uptake is, “Sell something else, then attach insurance into the package.” Many new customers have begun with compulsory products, such as credit life or loyalty products. “Freemium” models introduce customers to a new product free of charge, in the hope that they will see its merits and later start paying premiums.

Insurance providers and their partners can jumpstart an insurance relationship by bundling insurance, either with other insurance products or with other financial or nonfinancial services. Insurance can also be tied to tangible products, such as school fees, food, or discounts on medicine.
<h3>Aligning Organizations to Serve Unserved Markets</h3>
The frontline staff of financial service providers often don’t understand insurance themselves, or have no incentive to sell it. At CARDPioneer Microinsurance Inc. (CPMI) everyone in the company, from top management to frontline staff, spends three to five days per year in immersion visits with clients. The investment of time has paid off. As one example, CPMI learned that, although it had been paying claims to its partners within five days, the partners were slow to pass the payments through to customers. It reviewed its claims process and was able to fix the bottlenecks.

With these examples of keen attention to unserved and underserved customer segments, Garance Wattez-Richard, Head of Emerging Customers at AXA notes that the innovations required to make insurance work at the base of the pyramid can be relevant for more mainstream insurance markets. “Reverse innovation is occurring as new products, business models, and technologies pour over into traditional insurance,” she says.

For more on inclusive insurance, read “<a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/storage/Inclusive_Insurance_Final_2018.01.06.pdf">Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers</a>.”

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2018/01/08/inclusive-insurance-closing-the-protection-gap-for-emerging-customers/">Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2018/01/18/how-technology-is-propelling-inclusive-insurance/">How Technology Is Propelling Inclusive Insurance</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2018/01/29/inclusive-insurance-its-a-team-effort/">Inclusive Insurance - It's a Team Effort</a>

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The Radical Reinvention of Inclusive Insurance

Mainstreaming Financial Inclusion: Best Practices

Digital Financial Services

Insurance Companies

This post is adapted from the recently-released publication “<a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/storage/Inclusive_Insurance_Final_2018.01.06.pdf">Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers</a>,” a joint-report from the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion and the Institute of International Finance, in partnership with MetLife Foundation.

New technologies are dramatically changing the landscape for insurance around the world and enabling insurers to reach new mass market segments. New data sources and analytical tools are changing risk models by enabling new ways to create, capture, and analyze valuable information that can help insurers better calculate and manage the risk associated with customers. Machine learning applied to satellite imagery is changing agricultural and disaster insurance, allowing for more sophisticated claims management, even facilitating pre-loss payments that can help minimize the cost of a disaster before it is full-blown. The expansion of identity solutions and onboarding options is lowering operations costs and enhancing convenience. These innovations are helping the global insurance industry transform from a passive risk-transmission industry into an active risk mitigation and advisory partner for individuals, businesses, and governments.

The use of mobile phones to deliver insurance is no longer a novelty, but there is tremendous scope for growth. Mobile phone penetration in emerging markets is now 80 percent, making mobile devices excellent distribution channels. Mobile phones are convenient for enrollment, transmitting premiums and paying claims. Mobile phones have also been helpful for customer service, policy management, consumer education, and other vital functions.

While mobile insurance products have already broken important new ground, there is a much broader array of more recent innovations paving the way for growth. The joint CFI-IIF report found providers using technology to solve both front-end and back-end challenges. Here are some of the ways providers are addressing customer and business needs through technology.
<h3>Instant Enrollment</h3>
In many countries, advances in identification systems have made it possible to enroll customers instantly. Garrance Wattez-Richard, Head of Emerging Markets at AXA, notes, “National ID is changing everything in China and in India.” In Colombia, Margarita Henao Cabrera reports that customers can enroll in DaviPlata’s insurance in seconds by entering their national IDs into their mobile phones. Richard Leftley, CEO of MicroEnsure, notes that even basic questions such as the customer’s name, age, and other demographics can create a barrier to enrollment, so enrolling customers based only on phone numbers eliminates those barriers. “We don’t know anything about them until they make a claim, not even their name or age,” says Leftley. Depending on the market, automated enrollment mechanisms include internet-based products in China and point-of-sale devices among retailers in Latin America.
<h3>Technology-Enabled Claims Verification and Payouts</h3>
<a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/daviplata.png"><img class="wp-image-24911 alignright" style="border: 0 solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/daviplata.png" alt="" width="465" height="507" /></a>

Since paying claims fast builds trust and adds customer value, Allianz is experimenting with payments that do not require customers to submit a claim—for instance, if the distribution partner reports that a customer has been in an accident. Parametric or index insurance using data from weather satellites enables automatic payments for farmers. Claims payouts and management are even being enhanced by drones. Drones allow access to isolated and dangerous areas after disasters to collect aerial data and assess loss through cutting-edge imagery analytics. Munich Re has been experimenting with the technology and has partnered with U.S.-based drone company PrecisionHawk. The two companies worked together in the aftermath of the April 2016 earthquake in Ecuador.
<h3>Back-Office Systems</h3>
Modernizing back-office IT systems helps bring down administrative costs, making low-premium products cheaper to manage. When AXA acquired MicroEnsure, its first investment was to improve legacy IT infrastructure. LeapFrog Investments also prioritizes IT with its microinsurance investments. To further reduce transaction costs, some experiments use blockchain technology, such as Consuelo, offered by the Mexican-based mobile platform Saldo.mx, in this case to facilitate microinsurance for Mexican migrant workers in the United States. By providing a universal and tamper-proof record of transactions, blockchain technology could reduce human error, fraud, data duplication, processing delays, and opaqueness—ultimately increasing efficiency and lowering operational and administrative costs for the insurance industry. (Though at a very high energy cost.)
<h3>Using New Data to Reappraise Risks</h3>
Historically, there has not been enough data to feed actuarial analysis that can inform a relevant product at a fair and attractive price for newer and lower income market segments. However, data has now become available on people who have a national ID or mobile phone number. Data analytics can then be effective at identifying prospective customers and their behavior patterns. Salmaan Jaffery of DIFC Authority looks forward to using artificial intelligence and machine learning in product development and risk assessment. With new data tools, the sector will look at risk differently. As Jaffery explains, “It may become apparent, through the analysis of behavioral and social data, that lower-income people may not be any greater risk than those with higher income profiles.”

For more on the uses of technology in inclusive insurance, including how it’s enabling integrated services for health insurance, read “<a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/storage/Inclusive_Insurance_Final_2018.01.06.pdf">Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers</a>.”

Image credit: Accion

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2018/01/08/inclusive-insurance-closing-the-protection-gap-for-emerging-customers/">Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers</a>

<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>

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&nbsp;

How Technology Is Propelling Inclusive Insurance

MetLife Foundation

Innovation Spotlight

Agricultural and Rural Finance

Credit

Financial Technology

Insurtech

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.

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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>

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Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers

East Asia and Pacific

Europe and Central Asia

Latin America and The Caribbean

South Asia

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

Report

AXA shares insights on and solutions to women's unmet insurance needs in emerging economies.

By <a href="https://group.axa.com/en/about-us/profile/garance-wattez-richard">Garance Wattez-Richard</a>, Head of Emerging Customers, AXA Group

Women-focused insurance solutions are a central part of AXA’s Emerging Customers work. In our <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiPgJOBxo7XAhUK2oMKHQBJCJMQFgg0MAA&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.axa.com%2Fwww-axa-com%252F57b5a3a4-c7cc-4dea-97c9-5f7d9f47232c_sheforshield_final-web2015.pdf&amp;usg=AOvVaw0YQN3Y_Twiv2ykoHDo86TX">SHEforSHIELD</a> report, launched with the International Finance Corporation in 2015, we found that the market is growing quickly, as women become more risk-aware and willing to invest in protection. We conducted focus groups with women in Indonesia, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and learned that women have very specific, yet unmet needs when it comes to insurance. I am happy to share the stories of three of the women we met on our customer insights journey, diving into their fears and desires and the role that inclusive, women-focused insurance solutions could play.



Nurul

”We are in good health, there are no problems,” we hear from Nurul and other women at the beginning of a focus group in rural Indonesia. Nurul, a 33 year old mother of three, is in her 4th loan cycle with a large group micro-lender. She and her husband live just above the national poverty line, earning an average of 3 million Indonesian Rupiah per month (around USD 220) through dairy farming, selling food and doing small jobs in the nearest town.

[gallery ids="24390,24388" type="square" columns="2" link="file"]

When we ask more, we discover that while Nurul does not worry about her own health, she is concerned with that of her husband, children and parents. She shares, “My husband is the head of my family, so if something happened to him, my family would not survive.” While her husband is the primary income earner, Nurul serves as the family’s primary caregiver, ensuring everyone is taken care of—particularly if anyone becomes ill.

This dichotomy is reflected in Nurul’s financial priorities, as well as that of many of her fellow borrowers. Despite the fact that one-fourth of Nurul’s neighbors have experienced pregnancy or newborn complications, with one-third of her fellow group members having given birth at home, our maternal health insurance concept was rejected unanimously during the focus group. Meanwhile, spouse life insurance and family hospitalization coverage a with transport allowance are in high demand among the women in the village.

While we still see a need for maternal health packages, we are adjusting our products to meet the actual desires of community members. We have bundled our family hospitalization coverage and spouse life protection, with health check-ups and basic education during weekly repayment meetings. In addition, we continue to improve our maternal health offerings. Together with medical device manufacturers and telemedicine providers, we have prototyped a solution that would make maternity care, including pre-paid check-ups and insurance for complications, safer and more affordable.

Ifunanya

Across the ocean, we speak with almost-middle-class women in bustling Lagos. Ifunanya, a 36-year old mother of three, graduated from agricultural university and followed her husband 10 years ago when he got an accounting job in Lagos. After maternity break, Ifunanya got back to teaching, and together the couple earns a regular income of 200,000N every month (USD 566)—very close to a middle-class threshold in Nigeria. Ifunanya, along with the other women in the focus group, say all the right things about healthy lifestyle: prevention is better than a cure, good diet is important and physical activity is a must. They laugh when asked if they apply these concepts in practice, but are hungry for more information on how to live a healthy life.

[caption id="attachment_24389" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]<img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24389" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/photo-17-05-2017-11-24-53-e1509171338285.jpg?w=2048" alt="AXA Photo Nigeria" width="1024" height="700" /> Focus group in Nigeria. Photo credit: AXA[/caption]

“Cancer is a situation that is feared in Nigeria. It is very difficult to handle... It cannot be managed,” admits Ifunanya. She is right. According to the World Health Organization, about 10,000 cancer deaths <a href="http://www.who.int/cancer/country-profiles/nga_en.pdf">are recorded</a> annually in Nigeria, while 250,000 new cases are recorded yearly. Specifically, Nigeria records 14,000 cervical cancer cases annually, part of the 85% of deaths from cervical cancer that occur in low- and middle-income countries. While Ifunanya does not know much about cancer, it is top-of-mind for her, and she and the other women in the group rank cancer as the most difficult health event to manage financially. “You will definitely need to have at least half a million naira to cope with it.” Ifunanya’s husband has a good insurance package from his employer, but it does not cover her at all.

All of this demonstrates demand for a solution that bundles health information, diagnostics and critical illness insurance, which can be delivered on a mobile platform.

Mary

The last stop of our consumer insights journey is the UAE, where we researched the needs of migrant women from Asia. Mary is 34 years old and has worked as a domestic helper in Dubai for the past five years. She earns AED 2,000 every month (USD 283), half of which she sends half home to her husband, two children, mother and sister. Improving the well-being and future prospects for her children is what motivates Mary. She is worried that if something happens to her, they will not be able to prosper. While she is very interested in our diaspora life insurance policy, she would prefer to put her mother or sister as beneficiaries to ensure her children’s welfare. Mary also saves money in a joint account with her sister to make sure she has easy access to funds when she gets back home. Many other Filipino domestic workers in our group in the UAE have accounts for the same purpose, creating a touch point with formal financial services. Migrant workers like Mary have a clear need for life insurance to cover their families in the event of a death, as well as easy ways to save money while they're abroad.

[gallery ids="24387,24391" type="square" columns="2"]

Lessons Learned and Implications 

Nurul, Ifunanya and Mary have many things in common. Being exposed to and unprotected against many risks, they are responsible caregivers with high aspirations for the future of their children. At the same time, they are so different. We need to start with a very simple offering for customers like Nurul in rural Indonesia, but if we build awareness, the solution prototyped for Ifunanya in Lagos might be also relevant for Nurul in the medium-term. Mary shows us that women face specific risks but also have specific preferences that need to be at the center of product and process design. For us, this is a thorny challenge, but also an incredible opportunity to ideate solutions for different stages of the emerging customer journey.

This all might look familiar to those of you who have been in the financial inclusion space for a long time. We are aware of the work done by <a href="https://www.freedomfromhunger.org/microfinance-and-health-protection">Freedom from Hunger</a>, among others, on bundling health and microfinance. Is this a déjà vu? We don’t believe so. We are taking lessons learned in the past and using them to fuel business model innovation. The issues are the same, but the rise of new technology and new health players makes it possible to come up with scalable and affordable solutions. It’s not only about cost anymore, it’s about changing behaviors by offering the right solutions to the right segment at the right time. For us, at AXA Emerging Customers, this is "make it or break it." If we can’t provide health solutions to emerging customers, we won’t be successful in the long term. Join us to make it a reality.

Insuring “Emerging Women” – Old Issues, New Solutions

Indonesia

Refugees and Migrants

Women

<img class="aligncenter wp-image-24227" style="border: 0 solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/fi-week_cropped.png" alt="" width="616" height="273" />With Financial Inclusion Week 2017 less than two weeks away, we’re excited to share a full <a href="http://financialinclusionweek.org/calendar17/">calendar of events</a> and specifically, 11 webinars or online events that you can join from wherever you are. Topics include micro pensions, IndiaStack, interactive voice response technology, and more. Don’t pass up an opportunity to hear from organizations and experts from around the world – register today!
<h4>Monday, October 30</h4>
<a href="https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5232828010844793347">Digital Fireside Chat: How Are New Products and New Partnerships Unlocking Access to Insurance?</a>
Hosting Organizations: <a href="https://us.axa.com/home.html">AXA</a>, <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/">Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion</a>
To kick of Financial Inclusion Week 2017, Elisabeth Rhyne, Managing Director of the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion will join Garance Wattez-Richard, Head of AXA Emerging Customers for a digital fireside chat. During the webinar, Rhyne and Wattez-Richard will discuss how new products and partnerships are opening up new potential in the inclusive insurance space. They will take a specific look at how AXA is working to reach emerging customers.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/Thitsaworks/">Technology-Enabled Financial Inclusion in Myanmar</a>
Hosting Organizations: <a href="https://www.thitsaworks.com/">ThitsaWorks</a>, <a href="https://www.magzter.com/MM/Information-Matrix/Myanmar-Internet-Journal/Computer-&amp;-Mobile/">Internet Journal</a>
ThitsaWorks and Internet Journal will host a Facebook Live conversation on the impact of digital services on financial inclusion in Myanmar, where mobile phone ownership has grown rapidly from 5 to 90 percent between 2011 and 2017.


<h4>Tuesday, October 31</h4>
<a href="https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8455245903222706945">The Digital Landscape of Financial Inclusion: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities</a>
Hosting Organization: <a href="https://responsiblefinancialinclusion.org/">The Partnership for Responsible Financial Inclusion</a> (formerly MCWG)
The Partnership for Responsible Financial Inclusion (formerly the Microfinance CEO Working Group) and their senior staff who work in digital financial services and fintech will present on the trends, challenges, and opportunities for sector-wide collaboration in digital financial inclusion. Join the discussion and share your thoughts on the technology and innovations that are shaping the inclusive finance landscape.
<h4>Wednesday, November 1</h4>
<a href="https://mix.webex.com/mw3200/mywebex/default.do?nomenu=true&amp;siteurl=mix&amp;service=6&amp;rnd=0.9052351292117116&amp;main_url=https://mix.webex.com/ec3200/eventcenter/event/eventAction.do%3FtheAction%3Ddetail%26%26%26EMK%3D4832534b00000004931da127582115b1d0736ecfcb3b55bac591f4f402a78992b74709dd5584d48a%26siteurl%3Dmix%26confViewID%3D75612919730059323%26encryptTicket%3DSDJTSwAAAAR8kbqDsowOMB0HcHiCIxdYCb3-Oq_N6uyieiCBtymWFA2%26">Voice of the Client: Using Mobile Phones and IVR Technology to Understand Client Satisfaction in Cambodia</a>
Hosting Organization: <a href="https://www.themix.org/">MIX</a>
MIX’s webinar is focused on their <a href="http://www.themix.org/mixmarket/publications/voice-client-cambodia">Voice of the Client</a> project, a pilot developed for financial services providers (FSPs) to leverage mobile technologies as a means to analyze client satisfaction. MIX will share research findings from Cambodia and offer insight on how to best use interactive voice response (IVR) technology to gather client-level data for decision-making.

<a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/uncdf-and-visionfund-present-whats-next-for-microfinance-in-myanmar-tickets-39003624892">UNCDF and VisionFund Present: What's Next for Microfinance in Myanmar?</a>
Hosting Organizations: <a href="http://www.uncdf.org/">UNCDF</a>, <a href="http://www.visionfund.org/">VisionFund</a>
Isolated for decades, Myanmar has only recently opened up to the global economy. This has brought a lot of discussion about the Southeast Asian country being the 'last frontier' of financial inclusion. Microfinance legislation was passed in late 2011, but what has happened since? And what does the future look like?
<h4>Thursday, November 2</h4>
<a href="https://bfaglobal.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pQVJ6I9gTOOpO2ylEI5gBA">A Fintech Approach to Financial Inclusion</a>
Hosting Organization: <a href="http://bfaglobal.com/">BFA</a>
BFA will host a webinar focused on the benefits and challenges of fintech approaches to financial inclusion. The webinar will highlight key findings from three of BFA’s global programs: Catalyst Fund, FIBR and OPTIX.

<a href="http://bit.ly/MIXvoc2">Voice of the Client: Using Mobile Phones and IVR Technology to Understand Client Satisfaction in Peru (Spanish)</a>
Hosting Organization: <a href="https://www.themix.org/">MIX</a>
This webinar presentation will be the same as the preceding Voice of the Client webinar, expect it will be in Spanish and it will share project research findings from Peru instead of Cambodia.

<a href="https://successfulmicropensiondesign.clickmeeting.com/financial-inclusion-week-webinar-bpps">Successful Micro Pension Design</a>
Hosting Organization: <a href="http://www.blueprintpensionservices.com/">BluePrint Pension Services</a>
BluePrint Pension Services is hosting a webinar on designing successful micro pension schemes as a solution to mitigate the risk of old age poverty for men and women working in the informal sector.

<a href="https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1959278429738133251">What We Learned from Micro Pensions So Far: Case Studies from India and Ghana</a>
Hosting Organization: <a href="http://www.enviu.org/">Enviu</a>
In this one-hour interactive discussion, Ashish Aggarwal of Invest India Micro Pension Services and Samuel Waterberg of People’s Pension Trust Ghana will share their experiences and perspectives on setting up micro pension products in India and Ghana.

<a href="https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4179631111385479170">IndiaStack - The Change Catalyst</a>
Hosting Organization: <a href="http://www.accion.org/">Accion</a>
Accion will be hosting a webinar to discuss the ways that IndiaStack – a combination of complimentary financial technologies – is catalyzing change in financial inclusion in India. The webinar will highlight the risks and rewards of IndiaStack and the considerations FSPs should take before integrating with this system of APIs.
<h4>Friday, November 3</h4>
<a href="https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/845125705152860161">How Financial Institutions and Fintechs Are Partnering for Inclusion</a>
Hosting Organizations: Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion, <a href="https://www.iif.com/">Institute of International Finance</a>
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.

For more on Financial inclusion Week 2017, head to <a href="http://financialinclusionweek.org/">the Financial Inclusion Week website</a>.

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/11/17/financial-inclusion-week-roundup-e-magazine-keeping-clients-first-in-a-digital-world/">Financial Inclusion Week Roundup E-Magazine: Keeping Clients First in a Digital World</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2017/04/11/save-the-date-financial-inclusion-week-2017/">Save the Date: Financial Inclusion Week 2017</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2017/10/12/have-you-marked-your-calendars-for-financial-inclusion-week-2017/">Have You Marked Your Calendars for Financial Inclusion Week 2017?</a>

Webinars for #FinclusionWeek -- Register Today

Partnership for Responsible Financial Inclusion

Cambodia

Myanmar

Agent Banking

Pensions and Retirement Saving

Policy, Regulation and Government Initiatives

Amee Parbhoo

Ashley Lewis

Megan Peterson

Michael Schlein

Vikas Raj

China

India

Mexico

South Africa

Zambia

Impact Investing

Partnerships

Payments

Resilience

Saving

Article

Podcast

“I have never been so proud because, that season, insurance made that harvest possible,” recalls Rose Goslinga, CEO and co-founder of Pula. She saw how insurance enabled 10,000 farmers in East Africa to reap a harvest against all odds in 2009. Rains fell early that year — well before farmers were ready — and the seeds they had already planted didn’t germinate. In most places across Africa and around the world, those farmers would have been out of luck. However, because their seeds were covered by insurance, the farmers were able to pick up new bags and enjoy a successful harvest in the latter part of the season. On <a href="https://soundcloud.com/accioninternational/pula-and-protecting-smallholder-farmers-through-insurance">our latest episode of VentureKast</a>, the podcast about the most innovative and impactful financial inclusion startups in the world, I sat down with Rose to discuss <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://medium.com/accion/in-a-changing-climate-technology-provides-a-lifeline-for-farmers-c2eb5133d79f" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pula, Accion’s first ever investment in insurance</a> for farmers.
Pula develops insurance products and distributes them to farmers, while simultaneously offering farm advisory services so that, in Rose’s words, their customers “can be the best farmers they can be.” Pula bundles their insurance products with farm inputs, such as fertilizer, seeds, or credit. This substantially lowers risk for farmers who want to be able to invest in more expensive, higher-yielding seeds and fertilizers. The insurance provides income stability for farmers who are at the mercy of droughts, floods, and pests. Pula uses satellite data and imagery to be able to underwrite these policies more efficiently and provide timely agronomic advice.
Across Pula’s eight African markets, insurance penetration rates are typically less than 5 percent. Pula innovates to improve this. The farmers realize that insurance is useful, but they are not willing to pay its upfront cost.

<blockquote class="graf graf--pullquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“They don’t wake up in the morning thinking, ‘I want to buy new insurance.’ They think, ‘I have school fees to pay’ or when it starts raining, ‘I need to buy fertilizer now; where is my money for fertilizer?’”</blockquote>
So, Pula figured out another way; they partner with input distributors to insure all bags of seeds and fertilizers — the costs are simply included in each bag. If the rain doesn’t arrive on time, the farmers can receive a voucher for another bag and plant again for a second chance at the harvest. The key is that the distributor pays for the insurance, not the farmer.
Technology underpins Pula’s business model. Satellite imagery monitors weather conditions to facilitate underwriting and expedite claims processes. QR codes allow farmers to register for insurance policies by pushing a few buttons. SMS messages relay immediate advice on when to apply fertilizer or top-dressing to maximize yields. This use of technology allows Pula to scale much faster than most insurance companies and to reach previously inaccessible communities.
“What do farmers really want? They don’t necessarily want insurance, but they do want fertilizer, they do want seeds,” says Rose. Pula’s short-term insurance products are revolutionary for many of its customers, especially considering how few of the world’s 500 million smallholder farmers have insurance. For Rose, the future means expanding Pula’s work to provide seeds, fertilizer, and insurance around the world.

Pula and protecting smallholder farmers through insurance

Pula

Accion Venture Lab

South Africa is a global hub for fintech innovation. Accion supports and advises South African innovators using technology to help entrepreneurs expand their businesses and families protect their homes around the world.

Globally, more than 1.4 billion people are living in informal settlements, and unfortunately, that number is rising rapidly. These communities are prone to overcrowding, they lack even the most basic amenities, and they fail to comply with regulations meant to protect inhabitants from fires and other threats. Natural disasters, conflict, climate change, and lack of affordable housing are <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://gsdrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/UrbanGov_GSDRC.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">among the factors</a> driving more and more people to live in informal settlements. Among the other challenges they face, most community members can’t access high quality, affordable financial services and insurance coverage.
Formal housing allows, and often requires, homeowners and renters to purchase insurance to protect them and their property. But families living in informal settlements have difficulty accessing the same type of coverage because providers can’t quickly locate their homes, assess the value of their assets, and validate and pay claims.
<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://lumkani.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Lumkani</a>, one of our latest investments at Accion Venture Lab, leverages proprietary hardware and a tech-enabled agent network to provide consumers living in informal settlements within South Africa with insurance that protects against loss of life, shelter, and assets in the case of a home fire. Lumkani bundles this insurance product with an Internet of Things (IoT) connected heat sensor that detects fire in and around homes, reducing damages from the flames by providing an early warning system that alerts residents and neighbors. Lumkani’s IoT device and proprietary agent network generate data on household value, customer’s location, and demographics that Lumkani can use to underwrite, service, and pay out claims.
At Venture Lab, we’re most excited about the innovative way Lumkani is delivering microinsurance and their use of technology to reach underserved populations such as:
Using IoT to provide financial services to the underserved: Lumkani’s hardware can significantly change the way low-income consumers view insurance. The Lumkani’s IoT heat sensor serves as a reminder of the protection received when paying monthly premiums, resulting in a stickier insurance offering and an increase in retention. Existing clients view the Lumkani heat detector as a way to stay safe in their homes, and it helps create a tangible connection to the insurance product, thus driving customer retention.
Leveraging data for effective underwriting and claims management: On the insurance end, the IoT device and the data received present a new way to underwrite, service, and administer claims by accessing information such as household value, location, and demographic data. Lumkani has distributed nearly 13,000 IoT units and works with their partners to leverage this data when designing new products. They are continuously evolving as their dataset becomes more robust.
Applying a “tech and touch” model to reach into informal settlements: While we are excited about Lumkani’s technology approach, we also believe that for communities that are apprehensive about the value of long-term insurance, a human touchpoint is critical. This model not only builds trust with customers, but it also serves as a constant reminder of the value of the heat sensor and the accompanying insurance. The software they supply their agents and the mobile communications they maintain with their customers allow Lumkani to efficiently manage their clients, ensuring they can scale their operations.
Centering customer needs when developing and updating products: We have been impressed with the Lumkani team’s thoughtfulness and dedication to low-income consumers living in informal settlements. They have purposefully designed this product with the financially excluded in mind, and they have made the necessary adjustments to continue to serve this group better. We envision that the team will keep developing new products to deepen their clients’ overall financial health, and we look forward to seeing how they leverage their network of agents and IoT devices to expand access to financial services throughout South Africa.
We couldn’t be more excited to be working with the Lumkani team on their mission to keep people safe and protected in their homes. David Gluckman, Paul Mesarcik, and Francois Petousis have been building this solution since 2014.
While <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.pwc.co.za/en/assets/pdf/south-african-insurance-2014.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">insurance penetration rates in South Africa are some of the highest globally</a>, insurance companies have struggled to offer insurance solutions that reach low-income individuals, creating a massive market opportunity. Lumkani is dedicated to designing, delivering, and servicing some of the hardest to reach communities in an innovative way.
We at Venture Lab are looking forward to working with Lumkani and our co-investors, 4Di and Lireas, to bring insurance to the underserved and help to create thriving and secured environments for those who need it most.

Everyone should be able to feel safe in their own home

Lumkani

Smallholder farmers are the bedrock of sub-Saharan Africa’s and Asia’s agricultural markets, providing <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4036e.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">over 80 percent of the food supply</a>, but they are growing increasingly vulnerable. Climate scientists estimate that over the next few decades, droughts will <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www2.ucar.edu/atmosnews/news/2904/climate-change-drought-may-threaten-much-globe-within-decades" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">frequently affect Africa and Asia</a> as a result of climate change. As weather conditions cause decreased stability for family farms, there is an increased need for risk mitigation solutions that can add security to the lives of those most affected.
Pula, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.accion.org/pula-secures-funding-from-global-investors-to-support-smallholder-farmers-in-africa-and-south-asia/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">one of Accion Venture Lab’s latest investments</a>, provides insurance to smallholder farmers across Africa and India, enabling income security for a population whose livelihoods depend on climate patterns. Pula uses cutting-edge technology coupled with expansive distribution partners to make large-scale agricultural insurance feasible for rural farmers.
Across their product portfolio, Pula uses various technologies, including automated voice calls to register customers, satellite imagery to monitor cloud cover, and SMS messages to provide agronomic advice. In the event of a drought or poor season, Pula uses weather data and yield samples to offer compensation to farmers for their losses. By coupling technology with large-scale distribution, Pula can make insurance practical for smallholder farmers at scale.
At Venture Lab, we’re most excited about a few core areas of the typical microinsurance value chain that Pula disrupts:
Eliminating the purchase barrier: Pula’s distribution model circumvents the challenges of customer adoption and education that we’ve seen insurers struggle with in the past. Customers read about Pula’s coverage on a sticker on the bag of seed or fertilizer they’re purchasing, and then they register their unique policy via their mobile phone. Pula’s partners put stickers on every bag sold in a region, and there’s no visible added cost to the products, simplifying the farmer’s decision-making process. To that farmer, Pula’s coverage is easy to activate and presents pure upside.
Increasing yields for customers with massive need: Pula focuses on some of the most vulnerable populations on Earth, and the insurance coverage is only the beginning of the benefit they receive from the product. By de-risking the purchase of farm inputs, such as seed, fertilizer, or credit, Pula is also able to incentivize farmers to purchase higher-quality products than they otherwise might — without the risk of failure. As a result, they can attain higher yields and incomes. Further, Pula provides the farmer with direct agronomic advice via SMS, leveraging the farmer’s GPS coordinates and their climate science team, and boosting the farmer’s yields.
Lowering the cost to serve: With its innovative distribution, Pula has the potential to reach a customer that has previously been prohibitively expensive to serve. Formerly, insuring smallholder farmers required multiple field visits to determine if conditions were right for crops to grow and to educate the farmer about the benefits of insurance, ultimately convincing them to pay for coverage. Pula can automate and significantly cut costs by assessing the farm’s weather remotely using satellite and regional yield data. Working through distributors also enables Pula to offer free and straightforward insurance coverage that is fully integrated with the input.
Venture Lab is thrilled to be working with the Pula team on their mission to provide insurance to smallholder farmers across Africa and Asia. Co-founder Rose Goslinga is a pioneer in the space, with a decade of experience and a <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.ted.com/talks/rose_goslinga_crop_insurance_an_idea_worth_seeding" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">TED talk</a> on her resume. She is working alongside Thomas Njeru, who provides actuarial experience and financial expertise as the company’s CFO.
As <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.microinsurancenetwork.org/sites/default/files/Microinsurance%20Network_Africa%20landscape%20full%20report-WEB_0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">microinsurance in most African markets hovers at or below 5 percent,</a> there is a massive market opportunity to support the world’s most vulnerable as they grow food to provide for their communities. Pula tackles the arduous task of customer awareness by partnering with known brands and uses cutting-edge technology to make the product scalable. <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.thp.org/knowledge-center/know-your-world-facts-about-hunger-poverty/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Half of the world’s hungry</a> are farming families, and Pula strives to reach those most in need with security and stability.
Venture Lab is excited to be supporting Pula as they take on one of the world’s most significant challenges.

In a changing climate, technology provides a lifeline for farmers

China’s economy has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, with a booming micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) market. There are over 50 million MSMEs in China that collectively account for over 60% of China’s GDP and over 50% of the government’s tax income. These businesses create 80% of total employment in China’s urban areas.

Despite China’s overall economic growth, the need to foster full financial inclusion is still imperative. In 2010, 38 million MSMEs lacked access to formal financial services, forcing them to borrow informally from friends, family, and moneylenders.

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 many know too painfully well, climate change-related disasters can cause financial stress long after they have occurred. In fact, less than 30 percent of losses from catastrophic events are covered by insurance, which means the remaining 70 percent of the burden is carried by individuals, firms, and the “insurer of last resort,” governments. According to the Insurance Development Forum, a 1 percent increase in insurance penetration could reduce the disaster-recovery burden on taxpayers by 22 percent.
The United Nations member states, in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, declared that governments have the primary role in reducing disaster risk. Governments can be well-positioned to support the introduction of insurance products to those in rural areas, which are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Additionally, many observers believe that agricultural insurance requires government subsidies. Governments have a crucial role to play here, but they shouldn’t have to go it alone. The responsibility of buffering against the effects of disasters should be shared with other stakeholders, including local government and the private sector.
New forms of public-private partnerships can help countries absorb the financial consequences of catastrophic events. Swiss Re partners with governments and multilateral institutions through public-private partnerships that mitigate the effects of natural catastrophes. Paula Pagniez of Swiss Re points out that the key is long-term investment. Some innovative projects have folded — not because they are unsuccessful, but because donors are not thinking long-term.
In China, the government persuaded hundreds of millions of farmers to use insurance to hedge against the risks of climate change. The government subsidizes the insurance, but at least 20 percent of the premiums come from farmers.
The government of India, after mounting losses due to extreme weather — 80 percent of which were uninsured — is mandating insurance to address its highly vulnerable agriculture sector. Its recent scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, launched in 2016, sets premiums for farmers growing specific crops. The government has also required private insurers to set aside 20 percent of policies to cover people in rural areas.
Insurance companies manage their own risk in part by protecting farmers from adverse changes in the climate through activities such as training on how to cope with erratic weather patterns and paying for artificial hail-suppression services.
It is also worth mentioning multi-country risk-pooling initiatives such as the African Risk Capacity partnership, which works with member states of the African Union while drawing on expertise, underwriting, and reinsurance from private companies such as AXA and Willis to help governments respond to extreme weather events and natural disasters.
Often, these complex partnerships benefit from external brokering. Cenfri, as an independent policy think tank, has the patience for negotiating longer-term relationships and models. The MicroInsurance Centre likewise has extensive experience working with commercial insurers, foundations, bi- and multilateral development agencies, regulators, NGOs, and others. The International Finance Corporation has promoted insurance as an element of public-private partnerships to address climate risk and other challenges.
We cannot insure our way out of all the effects of climate change and natural disasters, but we can improve disaster resilience. Governments and insurers are recognizing the risks and working creatively with a range of partners to mitigate them.
For more on inclusive insurance, read “<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/storage/Inclusive_Insurance_Final_2018.01.06.pdf">Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers</a>.”
A version of this post originally appeared on the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://cfi-blog.org/2018/02/15/the-role-of-public-private-partnerships-in-reducing-disaster-risk/">Center for Financial Inclusion blog</a>. It is adapted from the recently released publication “<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/storage/Inclusive_Insurance_Final_2018.01.06.pdf">Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers</a>,” a joint report from the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion and the Institute of International Finance, in partnership with MetLife Foundation.

Can public-private partnerships boost disaster resilience?

Center for Financial Inclusion

Most of Mexico’s people lack access to a formal bank account. Accion has worked in Mexico for decades to create a thriving and competitive financial sector that embraces innovation and protects its clients.

Financial services can help make our lives better. They can help us save for the future, seize opportunities, and even rebound from disasters.
That last point is particularly timely. After Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, we’ve all seen just how important insurance can be in helping people rebuild, get back to work, and provide their families with the care that they need.
Unfortunately, many of the world’s most vulnerable people can’t access high-quality insurance. According to new research from the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/" rel="nofollow">Center for Financial Inclusion</a> at Accion (CFI) and the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.iif.com/" rel="nofollow">Institute of International Finance</a> (IIF), the estimated addressable market of uninsured people is 3.8 billion people. That’s far too many families who live just one injury, illness, or hurricane away from financial ruin.
Made possible with support from <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.metlife.com/about/corporate-responsibility/metlife-foundation/index.html" rel="nofollow">MetLife Foundation</a>, “<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/publications-a-resources/browse-publications/973-inclusive-insurance-closing-the-protection-gap-for-emerging-customers" rel="nofollow">Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers</a>” explains how business model innovations and new technologies make it easier to provide underserved families and communities with the insurance that they need.
The report explains that new innovations can reduce back-office costs and help make the business case for working down-market. New technologies and processes can help to:

<ul class="postList">
 	<li class="graf graf--li">Eliminate costly verification screenings to identify “exclusions”</li>
 	<li class="graf graf--li">Provide insurance policies without any fine print</li>
 	<li class="graf graf--li">Automatically distribute payouts based on verifiable events instead of waiting on claim submissions</li>
 	<li class="graf graf--li">Engineer more frequent payouts to consumers</li>
</ul>
In the past, insurance was frequently a difficult product for providers to sell at a profit to lower-income people. The costs associated with selling, collecting payments for, and administering lower-value policies was uneconomical. And an even larger challenge was reaching a large, diverse pool of customers: providers want to reach both high- and low-risk customers so that a single event doesn’t affect their entire clientele.
New technologies, distribution channels, and <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/banks-fintech-startups-working-together-accelerate-michael-schlein/?published=t">partnerships</a> between fintechs and financial service providers are helping address those risks. In fact, those new solutions aren’t just applicable in emerging markets — they can also work in more developed countries. Look at Accion partner <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.quona.com/alllife" rel="nofollow">AllLife</a>, the world’s first company to provide insurance to people who have been diagnosed with HIV. Their proprietary model of tech-driven perpetual underwriting and patient care allows them to serve the needs of an extremely excluded population in South Africa. Recently, they’ve begun using the same technology to cover people with diabetes. And their model has become so effective that <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.royallondon.com/" rel="nofollow">Royal London</a>, the U.K.’s largest mutual life, pensions, and investments company will soon use AllLife’s technology platform.
That’s why the recent CFI / IIF report is so important: it shows commercial finance the solutions and innovations for-profit businesses can use to provide high-quality financial services to the underserved, promote social progress, and realize economic returns.
The report also emphasizes how essential it is to begin with an understanding of clients and their needs. Important as new technologies and efficiencies are, this understanding is the cornerstone of any successful financial product, particularly insurance. Providers must understand what prospective clients’ needs are and how insurance can help them.
CFI will continue working with IIF’s membership as part of a two-year project to learn the best ways for financial institutions to respond to specific challenges and reach lower-income people and markets. “<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/programs-a-projects/mainstreaming-financial-inclusion" rel="nofollow">Mainstreaming Financial Inclusion: Best Practices</a>” will publish new findings on improving agent banking models, opening bank accounts remotely, and utilizing data analytics.
By addressing each of these challenges, we can tap the capital markets and foster a financially inclusive world.

New strategies and technologies are making insurance more inclusive

AllLife

Everyone needs access to high-quality financial tools. They give entrepreneurs the keys to start businesses, let parents send their kids to school, help families finance the significant moments in their lives — from marriages to children to retirement. These tools are helpful for building better lives, but they are also necessary to help people stay resilient through life’s worst moments.


[caption id="attachment_8049" align="alignleft" width="449"]<img class=" wp-image-8049" src="http://blogs.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/mexico_city_earthquake.png" alt="Buildings collapsed in Mexico City after the Puebla earthquake." width="449" height="299" /> Buildings collapsed in Mexico City after the Puebla earthquake.[/caption]
With the earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and wildfires of 2017, it’s becoming increasingly clear that those with the least money often pay the highest price during natural disasters. Many of the world’s poorest people live in communities that lack resilient infrastructure and financial tools. Often, these are in hot regions and coastal areas that are vulnerable to harsh weather. For people to prepare, rebuild, and feel confident that their families will get back on their feet, they need access to financial services and tools such as insurance, savings, and loans.

<h3 class="graf graf--p">Insurance Should Be Simple and Affordable for More People</h3>
Globally, there are 3.8 billion low- and middle-income individuals without adequate coverage. The <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion</a> and the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.iif.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Institute of International Finance</a> are researching how to provide affordable <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.iif.com/publication/research-note/insights-inclusive-insurance" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">“inclusive insurance” for these underserved consumers</a>.
The purpose of this research is to help insurance companies provide better coverage for those who need it most. Losing everything due to unforeseen events is already devastating, but for people with limited disposable income and no insurance, it is almost impossible to recover. Without insurance, people cannot manage the financial shocks caused by natural disasters. These events can permanently derail businesses and force families into life-altering decisions, such as taking kids out of school and putting them to work.


[caption id="attachment_8048" align="alignleft" width="450"]<img class=" wp-image-8048" src="http://blogs.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/MobilevsInsurance.png" alt="Mobile penetration and insurance penetration in emerging markets" width="450" height="449" /> Considering how many people in emerging markets have mobile phones — and how few have insurance — the market is ripe for mobile insurance solutions.[/caption]
Microinsurance, one of the topics of the research, makes coverage more accessible to low-income consumers through lower premiums. Insurance companies are updating their offerings due to the demand for these more modest insurance products. There has been a lot of growth in this industry in the last decade. From 2005 to 2016, prominent insurance companies that provide microinsurance grew from seven to 60.
Insurance companies are also finding other ways to update their services and help make coverage more accessible for an emerging middle class around the globe. One example is creating uncomplicated plans, such as pay-as-you-go models.
Another opportunity that is helping widen insurance coverage is coupling services with existing mobile financial products or creating new mobile solutions that bring insurance services straight to a consumer’s phone.

<h3 class="graf graf--p">Everyone Needs a Rainy-Day Fund</h3>
Without money and credit, how can someone rebuild after disaster hits? That’s a big question for the 3 billion people worldwide who lack access to bank accounts, credit cards, loans, or online money-transfer.


[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1382"]<img class="graf-image" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1440/1*Lv2SX5VDxCVrNebBOI0YZw.jpeg" alt="José Ramón Gómez builds his business with funding from Financiera FAMA in Nicaragua. These loans reinforce his tile-making enterprise so he can help reinforce his neighbor’s roofs." width="1382" height="922" /> José Ramón Gómez builds his business with funding from Financiera FAMA in Nicaragua. These loans reinforce his tile-making enterprise so he can help reinforce his neighbor’s roofs.[/caption]
To address this need, our partners go the extra mile to make financial services more inclusive. For example, one of our partners, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.accion.org/7970-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Financiera FAMA</a>, is building a digital banking platform in Nicaragua to bring small loans to rural clients, who have long been on their own without access to banks and funding. In Nigeria, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.accionmfb.com/Home.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Accion Microfinance Bank</a> is developing a mobile savings-based loan program that will make it easier for lower-income customers to save and access small loans. And <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="http://www.ayefin.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AYE Finance</a>, in India, is helping small business owners who lack the financial history to secure a loan through traditional banks by evaluating them based on similar businesses and distributing funds. Thanks to innovative practices like these, people previously left out of the financial system can now take out a loan or start a savings account — simple actions that can prove invaluable in the face of natural disasters.
Improved savings and loan services and inclusive insurance plans are necessary for people to take control of their lives when life feels most out-of-control. Let’s make sure everyone can build their businesses, support their families, and stay resilient in an unpredictable world.

With natural disasters getting more severe, people need money to prepare and rebuild

Accion Microfinance Bank

Aye Finance

FAMA

As we gather with our families for Thanksgiving this week in the United States, I want to thank the people who have helped Accion give others the financial tools they need to build better lives.
Accion’s supporters and partners helped us provide savings, insurance, credit, payments, and other high-quality financial services to those in need. These tools make it easier for ailing people to purchase medicine, for families to pay tuition, for entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses; they provide our clients with some measure of protection against life’s inevitable challenges.
Over the past year, our work has helped Accion make a difference all around the world by:

<ul class="postList">
 	<li id="edd7" class="graf graf--li graf-after--p">Ensuring that over 30 million Indian families and entrepreneurs could launch businesses, purchase homes, and hire more employees through our partnership with IFMR Holdings.</li>
 	<li id="23c3" class="graf graf--li graf-after--li">Helping South Africans with HIV and diabetes obtain insurance and receive medical treatments through our partnership with AllLife.</li>
 	<li id="409d" class="graf graf--li graf-after--li">Using satellite imagery to help African farmers grow more food and raise better crops by supporting Apollo.</li>
 	<li id="7b15" class="graf graf--li graf-after--li">Setting higher standards for global microfinance, ensuring that more than 40 million clients could rely on fair pricing, transparency, and complaint resolution by promoting the Smart Campaign, the world’s first global financial protection standard.</li>
</ul>
Even in the best of years, these achievements would mean a great deal. Yet natural disasters — earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes — made 2017 especially difficult for our partners, their employees, and their clients in Mexico, Peru, India, and even in the U.S. These events reminded us that our clients are among the world’s most vulnerable people; they need insurance, savings, credit, and other essential financial tools. These basic tools help families and businesses get back on their feet, get back to work, and provide for their children.
To all of our supporters and partners: thank you! We could not do our work without you.
As we <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fintech-inclusion-2018-six-big-trends-were-watching-michael-schlein/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_post_details%3B5eV2fG%2BYQj%2BM%2Bh7X2jcwAg%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">look ahead to 2018</a>, we ask you for your continued support. Whether it’s entrepreneurs in India, patients in South Africa, or farmers in Kenya, we can work together to make an important difference in peoples’ lives and ensure that they have the tools they need to thrive.
Again, thank you and happy holidays.

Insurance

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Pula and protecting smallholder farmers through insurance

Everyone should be able to feel safe in their own home

In a changing climate, technology provides a lifeline for farmers

Can public-private partnerships boost disaster resilience?

New strategies and technologies are making insurance more inclusive

With natural disasters getting more severe, people need money to prepare and rebuild

From the Center for Financial Inclusion

Insurance: from Micro to Macro

Webinar: Getting Inclusion Right

Ten Years Gone, Ten Years to Go: Taking Inclusive Insurance from Adolescence to Adulthood

In a Changing Climate, Technology Provides a Lifeline for Farmers

The Radical Reinvention of Inclusive Insurance

How Technology Is Propelling Inclusive Insurance

Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers

Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers

Insuring “Emerging Women” – Old Issues, New Solutions

Webinars for #FinclusionWeek -- Register Today

Why I’m grateful this Thanksgiving season