Recent imtfi_wp items

Islamic (Micro)Finance: Culture, Context, Promise, Challenges - Financial Services for the Poor, August 2015

Tue, 3 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This report also offers historical and theological contextualization for present-day debates and developments, overviews of commonly used Islamic (micro)finance products, and descriptions of key countries and institutions in the global Islamic (micro)finance industries. Examinations of the Islamic (micro)finance landscapes in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Pakistan along with case studies of Islamic microfinance programs in Bangladesh and Pakistan illustrate the variation in relevant legal, political, economic, and geographic considerations. Ethnographic attention is given to the unique challenges faced by female clients and female-headed households, implications of client relationships with IMFI field officers, and the absence of tools for clients to address personal accounting and calculation challenges.

...there is a lack of relationships between Islamic microfinance and digital tools that could easily promote product and platform innovation and aid service provision....

Haitian Monetary Ecologies and Repertoires: A Qualitative Snapshot of Money Transfer and Savings

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This report provides a qualitative snapshot of Haitian monetary ecologies six months after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12, 2010. The research examined the variety of ways in which money, people and goods circulate throughout Haiti in light of the changing economic, social and financial landscape. Based upon over ninety qualitative interviews and focus groups with Haitians located in four key sites throughout the country, the report focuses upon the challenges that many Haitians face in their efforts to send, receive, exchange and store money, and the role of mobile phones and other conduits in this process. Specifically, we address three key challenges that shape everyday Haitians’ attitudes towards money, trade and exchange and the potential for social change through new financial services: (1) Bureaucracy and Power; (2) Time and Cost; and (3) Security. The report concludes by providing a series of recommendations concerning the importance of social networks and intermediaries...

Mobile Money in Haiti: Potentials and Challenges

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In November 2010, Digicel and Voilá both made mobile money services publicly available in Haiti. Building uponour previous research on domestic remittances and financial practices, we returned to Haiti from Decemberto April to identify mobile money’s potentials and challenges given the specific characteristics of the mobile money services offered and the needs of the Haitian population. This report presents our analysis of how the new mobile money services fit into Haiti's existing socioeconomic environment, and how customers are adapting and using the services. We identify six key insights and make recommendations for the development of mobile money in Haiti.

Landscaping Mobile Social Media and Mobile Payments in Indonesia (Interim Report)

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This research project, with teams in the cities of Surabaya (East Java province, Indonesia) and Makassar (South Sulawesi province, Indonesia), began in late May. This report is based upon data collected up to July 15, 2012. In these first six weeks of the project, the Surabaya team conducted 5 interviews and the Makassar team conducted 7 interviews. This report summarize five key findings from thiresearch to date.

Mobile Money: Afghanistan

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

One would expect mobile money services to be well suited to Afghanistan: low levels of fixed banking infrastructure; rising mobile penetration; and a safer, cheaper, more convenient way of transferring money – especially one that removes the likelihood of graft. It all points to a rising adoption. However local operator Roshan and other network operators must overcome numerous non-trivial consumer barriers to adoption including: textual, mobile and financial illiteracy; a general distrust of institutions compounded by the well established Hawala agent network; a general distrust of non-tangible assets; and the chicken & egg challenge of investing in an agent network without sufficient customers – and customers less willing to experiment with the service without there being a strong agent network. Furthermore in a county with considerable graft, to the wrong eyes – a legitimate commission may seem like an outstretched hand. Expect mobile literacy to rise over time – as people...

embracing informality: designing financial services for China's marginalized

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Driven by a lack of opportunity, 250 million migrant workers have left rural areas to take part in the country’s manufacturing boom. Often, even when they find work, their lives are just as defined by poverty and instability as those they left behind. Financial services are a key leverage point for individual economic mobility, yet banks are becoming scarce in rural areas. More than 30,000 branches in poor and rural regions have closed over the last few years, leaving more than 64 percent of these populations unbanked. Creating new, innovative access to savings accounts, loans, and other financial products could provide the opportunities and stability people need to improve their own futures.

Reboot undertook this study to develop and share a deep understanding of the daily lives of China’s marginalized. Our goal is to inform the development of new financial services that can tap into this immense potential market and, in doing so, greatly increase these populations’...

Best Practices in Mobile Microfinance

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The main objective of this study is to review MFI experiences with mobile financial services to date, to understand the main challenges and opportunities faced during its implementation, and to provide guidelines for consideration. By sharing these experiences – which often were achieved through painful trial and error – the aim is to provide practical information and research‐based guidelines on how MFIs can leverage existing best practices as we know them in this early stage, and increase their chances of successfully implementing mobile financial services.

The development of mobile and branchless banking has been steadily gaining momentum over the last 10 years thanks to a highly innovative technological environment fostering the development of new mobile money platforms and applications. The success of Safaricom’s M-PESA in Kenya created high expectations with regard to the benefits of mobile payments. As a result, many donors, experts and MFIs became convinced that...

Landscaping Mobile Social Media and Mobile Payments in Indonesia (Further Thoughts)

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This report, which precedes the final report for this project, explores further discussions and research of the research terms for the “Landscaping Mobile Social Media and Mobile Payments in Indonesia” project. It draws particularly on insights emerging from the workshop “Landscaping Mobile Social Media and Mobile Payments in Indonesia,” which took place in Surabaya, Indonesia, on September 28 and 29, 2012.

Consumer Finance Research Methods Toolkit

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This toolkit was produced as part of the IMTFI’s Consumer Finance Research Methods Project. It demonstrates how different methods are being applied in finance research to help both for-profit and not-for-profit organisations cope with rapid changes in the sector. It is designed to help researchers and managers to: 1) Learn about innovations taking place in consumer finance research; 2) Understand how to use research to improve their organisation’s strategy; 3) Facilitate connections between researchers and organisations with complementary expertise.

Just as consumers have an ever-increasing choice of financial products, researchers have an ever-increasing array of methods at their disposal. This Toolkit provides readers with inspiration for ways they can develop their research, either by themselves or in collaboration with others. Readers can choose to learn about applications that are familiar to them, or discover entirely new methods and professionals who practice them.

Betting on Chance in Colombia: How game network operators succeed in providing financial services to the poor while other networks fall behind