Financial Inclusion - News and Views - February 2013

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February 2013

The monthly newsletter from the Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion documents the latest news and views in the financial inclusion space, to provide a knowledge base that will help build understanding around how to accelerate the poor’s access to high-quality financial services.

This month we focus on evolving payment mechanisms that have enabled the transition to cheaper and more efficient transactions; digital payments are a necessary condition for easing access to financial services. Our lead stories include a speech by RBI Executive Director G. Padmanabhan that has raised several issues on the transition from cash to electronic payments and a post by Daniel Radcliffe and Rodger Voorhies on the digital pathway to financial inclusion.

Lead Stories

Random Payment System Issues of Systemic Relevance for the New Year

Shri G. Padmanabhan puts down for discussion salient issues in the changing payment systems in India. Many of these issues impact our progress towards universal financial inclusion e.g. changing ingrained consumer behaviour in line with changing technology, managing the role of non-banks in payments, consumer protection in electronic transactions etc.

A Digital Pathway To Financial Inclusion

Daniel Radcliffe and Rodger Voorhies present the four stages through which countries transit as consumers move from cash to an inclusive digital economy. An important insight from their paper is that digital financial inclusion will accelerate only when stakeholders step outside their comfort zones to test new commercial and regulatory models. It is therefore crucial to revisit long-held assumptions in financial regulation, telecommunications, and banking.

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

Financial Inclusion of Urban Poor in India

Dr. K. C. Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, RBI, January 28, 2013.

Free Translation of Governor's Address at the Outreach Programme in Lalpur Karauta Village in Uttar Pradesh

Dr. Duvvuri Subbarao, Governor, RBI, January 16, 2013.

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

India

MIX releases India Map of Financial Inclusion with support from the Citi Foundation

Rise of the Machines: What the future holds for branch banking in India

Financial inclusion should be the focus of banking reform and guide fresh licence decisions

Financial inclusion: Bogged down by faulty execution

'Innovation will drive financial inclusion'

India Extending Inclusion Through Alternative Customer Identification

Visa claims mobile payment service stifled by telecom operators, refuse to offer USSD access

Wardha gets Skoch award for direct cash transfer project

The next step for Indian banking

Banking Bill: A game-changer for the industry

International

A Review of Financial Inclusion 2012: Aligning for Real Progress

What Do Practitioners Think Of Impact Research?

Growing Consensus of Financial Inclusion at Davos

‘Financial inclusion’ mooted as UN goal

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

Policy Brief 8: What Will It Take To Deliver ‘Direct Benefits / Cash Transfer’ Programmes Successfully?

Puneet Chopra, MicroSave, January 2013.

Taking the Pulse of Branchless Banking

CGAP, January 2013.

An Overview of the G2P Payments Sector in Pakistan

CGAP, January 2013.

Banking on Change: Breaking the Barriers to Financial Inclusion

Alice Allan, Maude Massu and Christine Svarer, CARE International UK, Barclays and Plan UK, January 2013.

 

In the Media

Making banking correspondents work

Financial Express, 23 January 2013

Column : DBT can learn from its predecessors

Financial Express, 22 January 2013

The Medium as the Opportunity

Economic Times, 20 December 2012

 

Blog

Employment, accounts and financial inclusion

Financial Inclusion: Driven by Transfers?

Focusing on the Customer Service Point

Editor: Sumita Kale can be contacted at icfi@indicus.net
The Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion was launched in 2011 to distill and disseminate information on accelerating the poor’s access to high-quality financial services. http://www.indicus.net/icfi

©Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved. 30th January 2013.

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

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