Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

Financial practices are not only about money. This paper discusses how people living and working in the Mexico/United States borderlands weave their economic lives by combining, associating, and disassociating formal and "informal" currencies. We base our analysis on transactions carried out by women who commute regularly between the twin cities of Mexicali and Calexico,detailing their financial practices; the frameworks of calculation they employ; and the social, cultural, and financial mechanisms they and their families use to cope with their daily lives. These include the use of monetary and non-monetary calculations and resources, different types of indebtedness and forms of reciprocity. Such findings reveal mistakes in the tenets upon which much anti-poverty and financial aid programs are based. A focus on people's use of particular calculations, resources, and social relations will help substantiate better alternatives that can be implemented in supporting their economies.

Current mobile money systems provide users with hierarchical user interface and represent money as a positive rational numbers of the form 1, 3, 4.87...N. However, research indicates that rural communities that cannot read and write have a challenge entering such numbers in to mobile money system. Navigating through hierarchical text menu is also difficult to illiterate individuals. The present study uses concepts like memory placeholders, dragging & dropping; swiping, temporary holding space, and frequency counter and proposed a system that consists of three layers. The first layer denotes user interface and uses photos of currency notes, second layer is a placeholder memory that keep record of the frequency of currency bill, and the last layer keeps record of the total digital money in the system. We believe that the proposed system enables illiterate to identify currency notes while making payments and receiving payments, count digital money while making payments and or receiving payments during transaction.

Mobile Money (MM) is now a popular medium of exchange and store of value in parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia. As payment modalities emerge, consumer preferences for different payment tools evolve. Our study examines the preference for, and use of MM and other payment forms in both Ghana and Zambia. Our multi-method investigation indicates that while MM preference and awareness is high, scope of use is low in Ghana and Zambia. Cash remains the predominant mode of business transaction in both countries. Increased merchant acceptability is needed to improve the MM ecology in these countries

This conference write-up synthesizes two days of IMTFI researcher presentations through a series of 8 blogposts (titles listed in bold within conference program below) on the IMTFI Blog authored by Liz Losh. View  IMTFI's awarded research projects 2015-2016. Download the full program in the supplemental tab.

#1 - The Double Gold Standard: Session One of the 2016 Conference (4/20/2016)

Session 1: The Sharing Economy? Women and Girls and their Ties and Tensions"To Send or to Carry? Gendered Evaluations of Formal and Informal Remittance Practices in Migrant-Origin Villages in Central Java, Indonesia" by Carol Chan, University of Pittsburgh“Generational Tensions in the Uptake of Digital Financial Services: Adolescent Girls and Adults in Nigeria" by Jude Kenechi Onyima, Nnamdi Azikiwe University“Group versus Individual Strategies: Dynamic Social Networks of Mobile Money among Unbanked Women in Western Kenya" by Sibel Kusimba, American University

#2 – Off the Charts: Session Two of the 2016 Conference (4/20/2016)

Session 2: Ecologies in Crisis: Transferring, Converting and Marketing Value in Unstable Times“Managing, negotiating, and converting 'currency' in daily life in a multicurrency environment of Zimbabwe" by Innocent Tonderai Mahiya, Women's University in Africa, and Simbarashe Gukurume, University of Cape Town“Financial Security: Laborers’ Transfer of Value from Karachi’s Marketplaces to Tribal War Zones in Pakistan" by Noman Baig, Habib University“Strange Intersections: Humans, Technology and Disaster in a Himalayan Valley" (Nepal) by Kabir Mansingh Heimsath, Lewis & Clark College

#3 – Bank Backdoors, Burials, and Betting: Session Three of the 2016 Conference (4/20/2016)

Session 3: Accessories to Technology: Mobile Financial Services, Risk and Insurance,“Assessing the Need and Feasibility for Using Pre-Paid Card Technology in Delivering Added Services to Micro Finance Customers in Selected Regions of Uttar Pradesh" (India) by Debashis Acharya,  University of Hyderabad and Tapas Kumar Parida, State Bank of India“The Curious Case of Mobile Micro-insurance in South Africa: A View from Above and Below" (South Africa) by Christopher Paek, London School of Economics“Sports Betting in Uganda: Causes and Consequences" by Sylvan Herskowitz, UC Berkeley

#4 - Alumni Session Panel of the 2016 Conference (4/21/2016)

IMTFI's X Factor: Applying and Translating Innovative Research - Alumni Panel"How Research Can Make a Difference Locally: The Case of Overseas Remittances in the Philippines" by Jeremaiah Opiniano"Translating Research into Product Design:  Interactive and Innovative Financial Education Modules to Improve the Financial Behavior of Targeted Populations in India" by Deepti KC"Juggling Currencies in Transborder Contexts: Mexico/US" by Magdalena Villareal

#5 – Trust Funds: Session Four of the 2016 Conference (4/22/2016)

Session 4: In _____We Trust: The Contingencies of Social and Financial Protection“The role of mobile money in social protection networks in two rural areas of Colombia" by Maria Elisa Balen and Andrea Beltrán, Universidad Externado de Colombia“Dimensions of Electronic fraud and Governance of Trust in Nigeria’s Cashless Ecosystem" by Oludayo Tade, University of Ibadan and Oluwatosin Adeniyi, University of Ibadan“Intermediaries, Cash Economies, and Technological Change in Myanmar and India" by Janaki Srinivasan, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB)  and Elisa Oreglia, SOAS, University of London

#6 – Economies of Scale: Session Five of the 2016 Conference (4/22/2016)

Session 5: Small Size Big Impact? Management of Financial Opportunities and Constraints by Micro-entrepreneurs and Small Merchants, Discussant: Olumide Abimbola, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology“Influence of Mobile Money on Control of Productive Resources Among Women Micro Entrepreneurs Participating in Table Banking - Nakuru, Kenya" by Milcah Wavinya Mulu-Mutuku, Egerton University and Castro Ngumbu Gichuki, Egerton University“Informal Loan Trap: Bombay 5-6 and its Effect on Tacloban Micro-entrepreneurs" (Philippines) by Rosalita M. Dula and Marilou Pelenio Grego, Eastern Visayas State University“Assessing Unmet Needs of Small Merchants in Adopting Digital Payment Systems in Southern Ghana" by Clement Adamba, University of Ghana

#7 – Taking and Staking: Session Six of the 2016 Conference (5/1/2016)

Session 6: Up(S)takes of New Financial Tools and Technologies“Separate self, interdependent self and new financial technologies - Lessons from rural southern India" by Venkatasubramanian Govindan, French Institute of Pondicherry“Cross-border Transfers as a Strategic Tool to Promote the Diffusion of Mobile Money in Rural Areas. The Case of Burkinabe Diaspora Living in Ivory Coast" by Solène Morvant-Roux, Univesity of Geneva, Simon Barussaud, University of Geneva and Dieudonné Ilboudo, National Centre of Scientific and Technological Research in Ouagadougou (CNRST/INERA)"Exploring Rosca Dynamics with a Cambodian Factory Worker Board Game" by Andrew Crawford, Monash University

#8 - Cashing In: Keynote and Final Comments of the 2016 Conference (5/1/2016)

Keynote Address - "Buckle up! An Eclectic Journey of Mobile Money in Kenya (and Beyond) - Insights & Impacts of Research" by Ndunge Kiiti, Visiting Professor, CIIFAD, Cornell University

In IMTFI's PERSPECTIVES blog series, IMTFI’s International Board members and affiliated researchers take on the definition of financial inclusion. This series aims to foster an open dialogue on issues around money, technology, and financial inclusion for the world’s poor. Individual contributions reflect contributors' own reflections on recent events based on their research and areas of expertise. The topic of financial inclusion will conclude with a capstone white paper by IMTFI titled "Mobile Money: The First Decade." 

This is post 2 of 6 of the PERSPECTIVES blog series on Financial Inclusion: 1. Can Financial Inclusion Be Synonymous with Financial Justice and Equity; 2. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part One): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 3. Reflections on the “Financial Inclusion of the Poor,” Workshop in Karachi (Part Two): Decolonizing Financial Inclusion; 4. Drama in the Payments Infrastructure and Saturation in Financial Education: Discussing New Avenues of Research around Financial Inclusion in Colombia; 5. Continuing the Conversation about “Financial Inclusions” in Latin America – onto Mexico; 6. Mobile Money: The First Decade - NEW White paper.

This conference write-up synthesizes two days of research presentations that took place at UC Irvine for the June 1-2, 2009 The Bottom of the Pyramid in Practice Conference on the Virtualpolitik Blog authored by Liz Losh.  

Go to the Supplemental Material tab to download The Bottom of the Pyramid in Practice Conference Flyer

Final Report/Synopsis of Research Results: Technological advances on mobile technology has made it possible to transfer money faster and cheaper even to distant areas. Philippines-based service providers have turned this technology into a multimillion peso business. Development practioners have drumbeated its potential,particularly in financial services, in serving frontier areas or geographically distant , hard to reach locales with pockets of economically challenged and socially excluded populations. Frontier areas have money ecologies that develop in the context of poverty, coping and distance from centers of power and commerce.

La experiencia reciente muestra que los servicios financieros móviles (SFM) tienen un enorme potencial para aumentar y transformar el acceso a servicios financieros de la población de menores recursos, tradicionalmente excluida de la oferta formal de intermediación financiera. La clave es que se aprovecha la penetración previa de la telefonía móvil, que se presenta como una solución a los problemas de infraestructura para la oferta de servicios financieros. Así, mediante esta plataforma, cuya expansión ha sido notable en países en vías de desarrollo, es posible brindar servicios financieros a quienes no los obtendrían de otro modo. El objetivo de esta investigación es evaluar cuán eficiente resulta el ecosistema de los SFM para su expansión, poniendo énfasis en las necesidades de los sectores de menores ingresos. La concepción de los SFM como un ecosistema sigue los lineamientos del World Economic Forum (2011). Este ecosistema se presenta como el soporte, desde el lado de la oferta, para el despliegue de estos servicios. La literatura propone el análisis del ecosistema en tres áreas: (1) entorno institucional, (2) entorno de mercado y (3) entorno de usuario final. Cada una de ellas se compone de diversas dimensiones que explican el despliegue de los SFM. El análisis ha sido realizado para cuatro países de Latinoamérica: El Salvador, Guatemala, Paraguay y Perú. Estos han iniciado el proceso que conduce a la adopción de SFM, y tienen programas de transferencias monetarias condicionadas (TMC), con lo que muestran un gran potencial hacia la inclusión financiera.

Since the launch of MTN mobile money in Uganda in March 2009, the development has experienced steep trend growth with four others offering similar services. However, despite the presence of other service providers, MTN mobile money remains the market leader with wider network coverage, larger remittances and bigger clientele. Services offered through MTN mobile money have continued to be utilized and opted for by different social groups rich, middle and poor; young and older persons; state and non-state actors; and for effective and efficient implementation of the Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment programme (SAGE), one of Uganda’s governments key social protection initiative. The SAGE out-sourced services to MTN mobile money for remitting money to multiple beneficiaries of SAGE. This study aimed at analyzing the effectiveness of MTN mobile money services in the implementation of the SAGE programme in Kiboga district in Uganda.

This is the 2-page executive summary for the IMTFI Working Paper: Effects of Mobile Money on the Savings Practices of Low-Income Users - the Indian Experience by Mani Nandhi.

In 2011, 65% of India’s population did not have access to a bank account. Nevertheless, India’s socalled “unbanked” save by other means for everyday expenditures and emergencies. Traditional forms of saving include leaving money in gulaks (Fig. 1), with trusted friends or relatives, or in savings clubs. Many of these practices, however, are often risky or inefficient.

From Ghana to Papua New Guinea, mobile money services have emerged as a safer and more efficient savings mechanism. Mobile money provides a means of financial inclusion for the unbanked. In India, there are now six mobile money services enabling banking at very low cost.

This is the 2-page executive summary for the IMTFI White Paper Report: The New Financial Architecture and the Public Mobile Money System in Ecuador

Current Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa’s broader political program called the “Citizens’ Revolution,” has prompted a restructuring process of its domestic financial architecture through a combination of legal reforms, new public policies, and the transformation of the national payments system. As part of this endeavor, a new mobile money (MM) system is being introduced to diversify the available forms of payment. The high percentage of Ecuador’s unbanked population (70.5%) in comparison to the increased permeation of cellphone coverage in Ecuador (16.9 million cell phones for 15.4 million people) indicates the tractability of this project at the national level. The MM system will be executed and administered by the Central Bank of Ecuador(BCE), making it the first ever publicly mandated and Central Bank-administrated mobile payments scheme to be implemented in the world. MM is thus conceived as a liability of the state, with all the qualities and functions of legal tender.

Inspired by 21st century socialism, this MM system is based on the idea that money and systems of finance and payment are public goods. The BCE’s objective is to avoid the privatization of MM because other cases have indicated that mobile operators tend to become the sole providers of services, generating monopolistic and oligopolistic practices. Guided by a constitutional mandate to remake Ecuador’s economy as a “popular and solidarity economy” the CBE’s MM model seeks public benefit, financial inclusion of marginalized populations and poverty reduction. The project expects its main users to be savings and credit cooperatives, community organizations, family businesses, informal economic actors, and others who have been traditionally excluded from the banking system.

This is the 2-page executive summary for the IMTFI Working Paper: Patterns of Financial Behavior Among Rural and Urban Microfinance Clients: Evidence from Tamil Nadu, India.

Over the past decade, development planners in India and beyond have increased their efforts at targetting financial inclusion as a means of poverty alleviation. However, the nature of poverty and deprivation, the livelihoods, and the financial needs of the poor vary widely across rural and urban India. The study by IMTFI researchers Lakshmi Kumar and Jyoti Prasad Mukhopadhay seeks to identify some key differences in the financial behavior of the rural and urban poor as an essential step towards designing more targeted financial tools. The study used financial diaries to collect data on income, consumption, savings, loans, and insurance from a sample of poor households over a period of six months.

This study is an ethnographic account of the Shia population attached to Zardozi (embroidery) in Lucknow, who are reeling under intense poverty and suffering as a result of pittance. This study contributes to the linking of micro levels of analysis of money management through informal financial network of Rotating Services and Credit Association (ROSCA), popularly known as Beesi, among the poor skilled Zardozi (embroidery) workers in Lucknow. The research facilitates verbatim accounts of embroidery workers about what they want, what they expect of themselves and how they make their choices that they can make. The study is open to a wide spectrum of readers belonging to developmental studies, economics and microfinance who are interested in understanding real life situations confronted by the poor in third world countries.

This paper examines the various practices used to achieve income and consumption smoothing amongst the poorest households in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It looks at selected 125 households, representing 25 households in each of the five regions of the Yogyakarta area. It designated how rural financial institution and other can help them to have better smoothing strategy. We found that the behaviour varies in response to the types of profession and gender. Furthermore, the source of the income fluctuation also matters in determining households’ responses. However, the source of the consumption fluctuation did not appear to differ across professions.

This paper explores modernity and gender in a traditional society, focusing on the informal storing of money among indigenous populations in the Philippines, through 69 semi-structured interviews and observations. In these indigenous populations – Bontoc, Tagbanua and Higaonon – traditional forms of money are utilized side by side the modern form depending on the type of transaction. Money storage patterns differ by gender, arising from varying comfort zones, spending frequency, and amount of money stored. Modernity reworks traditional gender relations between spouses where money becomes a source of conflict, as they maintain tradition and absorb modern ideas of individuality and empowerment.

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.

The document summarizes research conducted by frog researchers in India to understand how urban slum dwellers access and use drinking water. The researchers traveled from Ahmedabad to Delhi, visiting slums and interviewing residents. They found that while water is abundant, the supply is rarely clean and reliable. Slum residents struggle daily to obtain the water they need. The researchers hope their findings will help solutions like Sarvajal's "water ATM" model expand access to clean drinking water for slum communities.

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.