Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

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.

In March 2014 a team from Myanmar-based Proximity Designs [http://www.proximitydesigns.org], frog [http://www.frogdesign.com] and strategy consultancy Studio D Radiodurans [http://www.studiodradiodurans.com] mapped the changing financial landscape in Myanmar. Over the two month project — we explored the diverse financial landscape for the poor in Myanmar and uncovered the nuances of income and loan cycles. We mapped behaviours around and attitudes to savings, investments, loans and transactions. We also explored the duality of development, how the poor balance their culture and beliefs with the advancement and globalisation of Myanmar, and how it has impacted their current lives and their outlook for the future. It’s a journey that takes in betel sellers, monks, motorbikes, goats and a lot of gold, with not a little of the afterlife.

This is an ethnographic study on behalf of Proximity Designs, that explores the financial inclusion space in Myanmar. For a full list of authors and contributors see the colophon.

El gobierno ecuatoriano está en el proceso de redefinir su arquitectura financiera doméstica, a través de la creación de política pública y la ejecución de proyectos específicos por parte de las instituciones del estado en conjunto con los actores locales. Uno de los proyectos que se destaca por su innovación es la creación de un sistema de pagos móviles, manejado por el Banco Central del Ecuador, que pretende constituirse como una herramienta efectiva de inclusión financiera. La propuesta de la creación de políticas públicas para administrar la creación de dinero móvil por parte del estado, se convierte en una innovación a nivel mundial. El objetivo principal es incrementar la diversidad de los medios de pagos, y mejorar la inclusión de los sectores marginales del país a los servicios financieros. La elevada penetración de la telefonía celular en el Ecuador (16,9 millones de celulares para 15,4 millones de personas), potencializa la aplicación de un proyecto a escala nacional, administrado por la Banca Central. Esta entidad cuenta con la capacidad tecnológica, la voluntad política y la potestad legal para ejecutar el proyecto de creación de una plataforma de pagos electrónicos, sin embargo, las limitaciones más importantes en este tipo de proyectos son de tipo sociales. La perspectiva de los actores operativos y usuarios, constituye un factor clave de éxito, por la practicidad, alcance, y utilidad que para ellos represente el sistema de pagos móviles.

Betting on Chance is the result of a research project that seeks new ideas and answers to achieve financial inclusion by working with and adapting services originally intended for gambling. During research in Medellin, Colombia, we found that people living below the poverty line were using game network operators as a means of conducting their daily financial activities. Network game operators are companies that specialize in managing betting and gambling games through a network of privately owned points of sales as well as affiliate independent sellers. Each seller uses a digital device or point-of-sale terminal for issuing tickets and completing transactions online.

The booklet includes helpful illustrations of the movement of money.

By using video-ethnographic methods, our team of social scientists and designers documented the activities of 21 informants who work in street-sales in the city of Medellin, Colombia. Why, we ask, are these game operators preferable as financial service providers for the poor? What needs do they address? What can mobile money service providers and microfinance institutions learn from these local institutions and practices? Although this study only covered a limited geographic area in Colombia, we believe that the findings and guidelines can be applied in different contexts affected by poverty in this country and beyond. Through an exercise in design thinking, we draw attention to criteria that should be taken into account when developing new products and services aimed to facilitate the use and exchange of money among people with scarce resources.

This booklet seeks to elicit conversations and the exchange of ideas across various fields including development economics and microfinance, social studies of poverty and human centered design. We hope the guidelines outlined in the booklet will help people working in the public, private and academic sectors to design alternative policies and programs to serve the common good.

Aunque ya hay más de un teléfono celular por habitante en Colombia y los bancos ofrecen acceso a banca móvil sin ningún costo, las personas de bajos recursos usan las redes de juegos para muchas de sus transacciones. Esta investigación explora los factores que determinan la preferencia de los pobres por el uso de redes de juegos sobre otras opciones, incluyendo banca móvil, para realizar transacciones. El objetivo es identificar qué aspectos ayudan o desfavorecen la acogida de estos servicios o canales para facilitar el desarrollo de nuevas aplicaciones que promuevan la inclusión financiera.

Las redes de juego tienen cubrimiento en todo el país a través de quioscos y vendedores independientes–vía terminales Point of Sale (POS)–, distribuidos en calles de ciudades y zonas rurales. Desde el 2007, estas redes han venido ampliando su oferta de servicios al punto que hoy incluyen corresponsalía bancaria, giros postales, pago de seguros y servicios públicos, recargas de minutos para celular y energía prepago, entre otros. Entre el 2007 y el 2011, los corresponsales no bancarios movieron US$ 7,7 billones. En el mismo período, las redes de juego alcanzaron cifras de US$ 15,2 billones solamente en giros postales. Mientras tanto, los servicios de banca móvil solo representaron un 0,5 % de las transacciones bancarias, una cifra tan incipiente que aún no aparece cuantificada en los reportes de la asociación bancaria nacional ya que se usa mayormente para consulta de saldos.

Mientras en países como Kenia, India y Filipinas, el uso de los servicios de dinero móvil (MMS, Mobile Money Services) se convierte en un mecanismo de inclusión financiera para los más pobres, en Colombia el teléfono celular es empleado solo para llamadas, especialmente en modalidad prepago, o como actividad económica en la venta callejera de minutos. El creciente éxito de las redes de juego frente al rezago de las redes de telefonía móvil, presenta una oportunidad interesante para identificar las motivaciones subyacentes que incentivan o desmotivan la adopción de una plataforma sobre otra. Este conocimiento puede ser de gran ayuda al momento de desarrollar nuevas aplicaciones o servicios.

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 is a study of the “triple intersection” of (1) smartphones; (2) social network sites; and (3) purchasing and selling online in Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation and home to more Muslims than any other country. Indonesia is at the forefront of emerging practices of online commerce, with consequences for a range of issues including consumption, payment, and internet sociality. To better understand this rapidly changing landscape of mobile social media and payments in Indonesia, research teams in the cities of Surabaya (East Java province) and Makassar (South Sulawesi province) conducted a series of interviews, focus groups, and observation of everyday practices.

The study explored the strategies adopted by salaried Afghans for mitigating financial (or more accurately asset) risk, the role played by extended families in levelling out drops in income, and reflects upon what this means for more formal financial services and the future of Afghanistan.

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’ access to economic opportunity and security. We focused on three marginalized groups of the Chinese population: 1) migrant workers; 2) rural villagers; 3) ethnic minorities.

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.