PSD Blog - The World Bank Group

CGAP: Policy needs a balanced approach to mobile banking and other technologies

A new CGAP/DFID paper addresses the policy implications of branchless banking. Regulating Transformational Branchless Banking: Mobile Phones and Other Technology to Increase Access to Finance is based on assessments of policy and regulation in seven key countries, including interviews with more than 500 people from governments, the private sector, and international organizations in Brazil, India, Kenya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia and South Africa.

While much of the current buzz is around mobile phones, other branchless banking applications are gaining traction as well. Brazil's increase in access to finance has been accomplished largely through the more than 95,000 banking "correspondents"—local merchants and post offices that act as agents for banks, equipped with card-swipe and barcode-reading point-of-sale (POS) terminals. In Russia, a broad network of bank ATMs, POS terminals, and online e-money providers offer transaction services outside of traditional branch offices.

Want to know more? Read the full report and access country-by-country information.

Partial credit guarantee scheme

Though credit guarantee schemes can improve access to finance and distribute credit risk, questions remain about their impact on credit constraints, small bank lending, entrepreneurship, SME finance, and on non-guaranteed lending.

On March 13, 2008 at the World Bank, speakers will present the latest empirical evidence from developed and developing countries on the subject.

The two-day conference held in Washington, D.C. is free and open to public on a first come, first serve basis. To register please send an email to Colleen Mascenik at cmascenik@worldbank.org.

Doing Business across Colombia

Based on surveys from Bogotá, Colombia took a 66th position out of 178 in the Doing Business 2008 report and became this year's top reformer. But as the subnational report (en español) released today shows, there are vast discrepancies on the ease of doing business among the county's 12 main cities.

Municipal requirements make up 7 of the 19 procedures required to start a business in Neiva, but only 1 of 13 in Villavicencio—the city with the fewest start-up procedures.

The graph below shows the time required to enforce contracts across 12 Colombian cities:

It's all about sharing

Nokia found that over 50 percent of users in India and Pakistan and 30 percent in Vietnam share their phones. Accordingly, the world's largest cell phone maker released two new models optimized for sharing. Among the new features are a cost-tracking application, multiple phone books, and software in 80 languages.

Paying attention to customers in emerging markets has paid off. The Finnish firm has posted record quarterly results: over 77 million units sold in Asia, the Middle East and Africa - almost doubling its sales in Europe and North America (42.3 million).

Financial liberalization can make your economy more resilient if...

A new paper compares changes in financing by international banks to domestic banks after the 1998 Russian debt crisis. The author finds that financing increased to banks with international equity holders when compared with their purely domestic counterparts.

Financial liberalization can make you more resilient to global credit shocks, but only if you invite foreigners rather than just borrow their money.

You know it, when you see it

Social entrepreneurship may be hard to define, but has managed to carve out a space for itself in business thinking.

At Davos, Bill Gates spoke of creative capitalism calling on the private sector to channel market forces to better address the needs of the poor, even if it sounds unreasonable to some.

Critical thinking at the bottom of the pyramid

Can information and communication technologies (ICT) foster critical and entrepreneurial thinking at the bottom of the pyramid? This was one of the key themes that emerged from the GK3 conference last month.

Take for example the One Laptop for Child initiative. Interestingly, the debate did not center around the long-term sustainability of the project, but whether it can help move education systems in emerging markets away from the hierarchical, rule-memorizing approach.

Once you start seeing users of ICT in developing countries as creative contributors, a whole new world of opportunities emerges. Backed by InfoDev, the Equinox project allows teachers, trainers and companies in emerging markets to build and share e-learning curricula.

Is there life after oil?

In light of a record labor force growth in parts of the Middle East, some question the ability of Arab countries to accommodate this demographic bulge and create enough jobs for the population.

Haward Pack and Marcus Noland – the authors of "The Arab Economies in a Changing World" - argue that relying oil hefty revenues alone won't solve the problem.

Becoming more globally competitive is the way for the future, they say, but it won't be easy given China's established dominance in the manufacturing and India's in the services industry and the region's overall difficult business climate.

New micro and small business tax toolkit

Though most agree that taxes are important and necessary, the question: "how to best design them?" remains.

Rapid Response has added a SME tax toolkit with advice for policymakers on how to bring and keep small business in the formal economy.

Cooking at the bottom of the pyramid

The World Health Organization estimates that 1.6 million people die each year from toxic indoor air. The main culprit is carbon monoxide released with smoke as a byproduct of incomplete combustion, when using traditional stoves.

Given that nearly half of the world population and 80 percent of rural households cook with traditional stoves, Environfit - a Colorado-based organization - saw a commercial opportunity and created a line of clean-burning ceramic stoves. Their first target demographics are Indian women. Prices will range from $10 to $200.