Financial Inclusion- News And Views - August 2016

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August 2016

The changing paradigm of financial inclusion in India was brought out succinctly last month by RBI Governor, Dr. Raghuram Rajan. In a speech at the National Seminar on Equity, Access, and Inclusion - Transforming Rural India through Financial Inclusion,, he noted the three impediments to universal inclusion – Information, Incentives and Transaction Costs. The policy approach therefore would need three components: narrow targeting of mandates to the truly underserved and explicit payment for fulfilling the mandate so that they are delivered by the most efficient, creating the right institutions such that transaction costs are lowered and focusing on payments and savings, rather than credit, as the first step to inclusion. He also listed five challenges ahead: 1) Managing Know Your Customer requirements 2) Encouraging competition to prevent exploitation 3) Ensuring some flexibility and forgiveness in financial arrangements 4) The need for skilling and support 5) Encouraging financial literacy and ensuring consumer protection.

On 1st August, the RBI also released “Guidelines for ‘on tap’ Licensing of Universal Banks in the Private Sector”, thereby opening the doors of banking to the private sector. The next step for the RBI is to adapt its monitoring and tracking framework to the digital world that all banks are operating in now (RBI needs a new monitoring culture, Sumita Kale, Mint).

In a blog post, An Indian Start for Digital Credit, Anand Raman, CGAP, describes the digital credit product brought out by Suvidhaa and Axis Bank. Innovative products like these will spread inclusion faster amongst the unbanked.

Research

Closing the Gender Gap in Financial Inclusion
Policy Brief June,2016

Building the Agent Network for Financial Inclusion
Policy Brief April,2016

Aadhaar: Understanding Content, Intent and Portent
Policy Brief March,2016

In the Media

RBI needs a new monitoring culture
Mint, 8 August 2016

Don't write off payments banks
Mint, 1 June 2016

Blogs

Big Reform in Indian Banking, Emphasis on Financial Inclusion
RBI Payment and Settlement Systems: Vision 2018

Section I: Policy – the latest from India’s policymakers

Policy and Evidence
Dr. Raghuram Rajan, RBI Governor, July 26, 2016

Information Technology – New Gauntlets for Banks
Shri R. Gandhi, RBI Deputy Governor, July 18, 2016

 

Notifications:

Pradhan Mantri Jan - Dhan Yojana Accounts Opened  
Trend of Zero Balance Accounts Under PMJDY
Position of Overdraft
Position of Bank Mitra Infrastructure

 

Section II: News and Views Digest – the latest from India and abroad

India

India tops chart in financial inclusion progress: BCG
Open Application Programming Interfaces (API): Purpose and Possibilities
India Can Payments Banks Survive?
Financial inclusion necessary for sustainable growth: Rajan
NPCI to audit financial inclusion tech platform for Jan Dhan accounts
The role of POS expansion in the vision of financial inclusion
Trai seeks ways to boost telcos' USSD channel for financial inclusion
India on cusp of financial technology revolution
Emerging markets including India to drive innovations in payments: PWC
As we are talking about Make in India, great responsibility on MFIs: ESL Narsimhan
Digital payments in India seen touching $500 billion by 2020
Saturated cities, now even Idli vada seller can get loan
SBI identifies 7 lakh accounts for providing overdraft facility
Protect financial inclusion buyers from mis-sellers
SBI, IOC link up to empower farmers
Digitisation will change economic growth model: Nilekani
Payments banks in India: Banking on the unbanked
Your voice new key to phone banking
Opening the gates on Indian financial data

International

Unlocking Financial Inclusion Using Biometrically Verified SIMs
Agents for Everyone: Removing Agent Exclusivity in Kenya & Uganda
The Replication Limits of M-Pesa in Latin America
Will Crowdfunding Help Financial Inclusion of Unserved Crowds?
A Better System for Internal Complaint Handling
5 Ways an Emergency Mobile Wallet Can Lead to Financial Inclusion
User-Centered Financial Services Build Household Resilience
How Ghana Set Its Rules on Interest Payment on e-Money Accounts
Interest Payments on Mobile Wallets: Bank of Tanzania’s Approach
An Introductory Course to Digital Credit
A few things we learned about tech hubs in Africa and Asia
Public-private cooperation to build digital identity systems
Private sector & philanthropy can unlock seismic change – DFID & GSMA Strategic Partnership for mobile technology

Section III: Research – surveys and studies on expanding access to financial services

Governance is the Weight Around MGNREGS's Neck: Technology May Offer a Way Out
Lokesh Singh and Rridhee Malhotra, MicroSave, July 19, 2016
Institutionalising Social Performance Management In Financial Institutions: What Does It Take? Part 1 and Part 2
Sunil Bhat and Angela Wambugu, MicroSave, July 2016
OTC: A Digital Stepping Stone or a Dead End Path?
Mike McCaffrey, Graham A.N. Wright, Anup Singh, MicroSave, July 05, 2016

The monthly newsletter from the Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion documents the latest news and views in the financial inclusion space. Editor: Sumita Kale can be contacted at sumita@indicus.org. The Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion was launched in 2011 to distil and disseminate information on accelerating the poor’s access to high-quality financial services. The Centre is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. . http://indicus.org/inclusion.php

©Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved. 8th August 2016

Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion, 2nd Floor, Nehru House, 4, Bahadur Shah ZafarMarg, New Delhi 110002

Newsletters from July 2020 are available at https://icfi.substack.com/

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