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The Role of Cash In/Cash Out in Digital Financial Inclusion

Getting cash into and out of the digital system remains one of the main barriers to financial inclusion in emerging markets — even in markets where digital financial services are on the rise.

How E-Commerce Is Transforming the Idea of the Rural Agent

E-commerce doesn't come up very often in conversations about agent networks for digital financial services - but it should.

Let’s Free Up Cash Networks by Rethinking Agent Regulations

Regulations often give big financial institutions near total control over mobile money cash-in/cash-out networks. Changing the rules would enable small entrepreneurs to play a bigger role in building last-mile cash networks.

Using a Gamified Solution to Incentivize Mobile Money Agents

Empowering mobile money agents to provide exceptional customer service can be challenging. In Indonesia, BTPN has an innovative solution that uses gamification.

Building Payment Rails in Frontier Areas Through Off-Grid Solar

Many off-grid solar companies are familiarizing customers with digital payments and helping them find mobile money agents. Should they go a step further and start managing agent networks?

Proximity Matters: Improving the Viability of Frontier Agents

Easy access to agents makes people more likely to use digital financial services, but business as usual has left remote communities underserved. Here are some ways governments and providers are expanding agent networks in hard-to-serve areas.

Can Agro-Dealers Be the Last-Mile Rails for Digital Finance?

New CGAP partnerships test large agribusinesses' potential to bring financial services to millions of rural farmers.

Better Regulations Can Spur Agent Banking in WAEMU

Regulations in the West African Economic and Monetary Union have enabled mobile money providers to double their agent networks since 2014, while restricting banks and microfinance institutions. Better regulations would create a level playing field and expand financial inclusion.

More than Human ATMs: The Potential of Empowered Agents

Using mobile technology to empower agents to do more than collect payments, a Senegalese agridealer grew sales, cut costs and made its customers happier.

How to Transform Agent Banking with an Agent-Centric Approach

What happens when financial services providers begin thinking of agents as customers? Follow the story of AMK, a microfinance institution in Cambodia, as it embarks on this journey.

Using SMS Messaging to Strengthen Your Agent Network

Agents are an important element of mobile financial services, but managing a large agent network can be challenging. In Paraguay, SMS messaging proved a cost-effective solution.

Responsible Digital Credit for Merchants: Insights from Kenya

As digital credit expands rapidly in East Africa and elsewhere, offering credit responsibly is becoming increasingly important. These insights from Kenyan merchants who use Kopo Kopo’s Grow cash advance product point toward some best practices for digital merchant credit.

Agents for Everyone: Removing Agent Exclusivity in Kenya & Uganda

Mobile money and banking agents blend seamlessly into the daily economic lives of consumers in countries like Kenya and Uganda, offering convenience and expanding access points to financial services. But agent exclusivity clauses can limit customers' choices.

Colombia’s Recipe for 100% Agent Coverage: Aggregation & Sharing

Universal coverage is a fundamental building block toward universal financial access. Last year Colombia announced that all of its 1,100+ municipalities had at least one banking agent serving customers in need of financial services. How did Colombia do it?

Small Business Finance and Financial Inclusion in Latin America

Limited acceptance of digital payments and high fees associated with using such services are two obstacles to greater financial inclusion in Latin American countries. Can these issues be solved at the retailer level, rather than the individual level?

Why Women Self-Help Group Members Make for Good Bank Agents

Pilot projects that train women self-help group members as bank agents in rural areas in India are proving to be promising.

Merchants and Agents: Apples and Oranges?

Digital financial services providers that pursue mobile merchant payments are creating acquiring networks of merchants able and willing to accept payment for goods and services. How can they build on existing agent networks?

What’s Undermining India’s Financial Inclusion Progress?

The success of India's financial inclusion efforts hinges on one factor above all: the quality of the last-mile banking agent networks that will disburse payments and enable customers to access their bank accounts.

EasyPaisa: Incentivizing Mobile Wallet Usage in Pakistan

The majority of mobile money customers in Pakistan prefer to transact via agents. However, registered mobile money accounts are critical for financial inclusion.

Agent Network Expansion: What Can We Learn from Cote d’Ivoire?

The mobile money market in Cote d’Ivoire has boasted impressive acceleration in terms of registered customers, but the number of transaction points in the distribution networks has also seen tremendous growth.