Financial Inclusion- News and Views - July 2015

 

July 2015

 

The Indian government launched the Digital India initiative on 1st July aimed at three key areas: a) Digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen, b) Governance and services on demand and c) Digital empowerment of citizens. Connecting each and every citizen of the country to the digital network is an imperative for India and while it is long overdue, there are significant challenges to overcome. Key industrialists have given strong backing to this ambitious project, committing INR 4.5 trillion in investment. Financial inclusion through digital banking is a key component of this initiative as citizens across the country will be connected to the transactions and services network. However, as noted in a recently released CGAP report, Doing Digital Finance Right, "many users are not only new to both formal finance and technology, they also live precarious financial lives that allow little room for error." The systems set in place now must address the main concerns that customers may potentially have. Here, the onus does not lie solely on the government, but on all stakeholders in the financial services and telecom sectors. The CGAP report authored by Katharine McKee, Michelle Kaffenberger and Jamie Zimmerman analysed research findings from sixteen countries to conclude that there are seven key consumer risk areas:

Inability to transact due to network/service downtime

Insufficient agent liquidity or float, which also affects ability to transact

User interfaces that many find complex and confusing

Poor customer recourse for grievances and queries

Fraud that targets customers

Inadequate data privacy and protection

Policy makers, regulators, financial and telecom service providers must all coordinate their efforts to ensure that trust is built in these emerging digital transaction modes.

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

Financial Education: Basics and Beyond

Shri S. S. Mundra, Deputy Governor, RBI, June 15, 2015

Financial Frauds – Prevention: A Question of Knowing Somebody

Shri R. Gandhi, Deputy Governor, RBI, June 26, 2015

Future and new thoughts on co-operative banks

Shri R. Gandhi, Deputy Governor, RBI, June 19, 2015

Roundtable on Capacity Building in Banks

Shri R. Gandhi, Deputy Governor, RBI, June 18, 2015

Notifications:

Report on DBT and PAHAL (DBTL) for the period up to 31st March, 2015

Letter saturation of Aadhaar seeding in 100 DBT MGNREGA districts

Pradhan Mantri Jan - Dhan Yojana (Accounts Opened As on 24.06.2015)

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

India

The Mor Committee – Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due (Part-II)

What's Undermining India's Financial Inclusion Progress?

India Digitizes its Merchants in Partnership with the U.S.

In cash, not plastic, we trust

RBI simplifies process of opening new bank accounts

UIDAI generates 12 crore Aadhaar numbers in UP, Lucknow tops tally

HP govt to contribute to workers' bank accounts under APY

Financial inclusion: A business proposition

Financial inclusion will take time: industry experts

Financial inclusion continues to gather pace: CRISIL

Bank branches in India cross 1 lakh landmark: Crisil study

More villages under banking network

Govt's push to offer banking for all stumbles on empty accounts

Making financial inclusion viable

Financial inclusion and digital payments

International

Solving Customer Service Issues in Digital Finance – Can Do, Must Do

In Our Digital Financial Service We Trust?

Can Self-Service Channels Be The Next Frontier Of Financial Inclusion?

Over the Counter (OTC) in Pakistan: The Challenges and the Way Forward

Innovation Overkill: Why Product Innovation in Financial Inclusion isn't Always the Right Move

Market Readiness for Mobile Money Interoperability

Two More Revolutions Underway in Kenya

Building Resilient Households in Burkina Faso

Fine Tuning Kaleido: A Key Step for Customer-Centricity

myAgro, HCD, and Supporting Smallholder Savings in Senegal

Designing Digital Financial Services for Cambodian Smallholders

Pathways to Self-Reliance for Urban Refugee

A December Bonus for Mozambican Farmers

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

Setting the Public Distribution System Right The Case for 'Direct Benefit Transfers' - Part 1

Setting Public Distribution System Right: Touchstone Case for Direct Benefit Transfers - Part II

Alekh Sanghera, Ankush Khanna, Lokesh Singh, MicroSave, June, 2015

 

Research

Digital Financial Inclusion: Agenda for India

Policy Brief March 2015

Global Lessons on Partnerships for Financial Inclusion

Policy Brief January 2015

Implementing the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojna

Policy Brief November, 2014

In the media

The last mile in direct benefits transfer

Mint, 01 June 2015

Achieving financial inclusion a key matrix

Financial Express, 29 May 2015

S V Divvaakar: Pay for financial inclusion

Business Standard , 29 April 2015

Blog

Direct Benefits Transfers - A short update

Including women- Lessons from Somaliland

Payments Banks and Partnerships

 
 

Editor: Sumita Kale can be contacted at icfi@indicus.net

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://www.indicus.net/icfi

© Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved. 30th June 2015

 

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

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