Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

Final Report/Synopsis of Research Results: The rate of penetration of the mobile phone has exceeded any other technology, particularly in the developing world. This has seen the introduction of mobile based financial services to address financial exclusion. However, there is limited research on the usage of these mobile financial services by the poor. This paper seeks therefore to explore how mobile banking services are beingused by the urban poor in five townships in Johannesburg, South Africa. It seeks to explore the social, technological and economic factors that have enhanced or inhibited use of mobile banking initiatives. In-depth interviews with 15 users of a mobile banking initiative and focus groups of non-users were conducted.

The study applied the Capabilities Approach by Amartya Sen to analyse the contexts that can affect access and use of mobile banking services. Analysis of the data shows that mobile phone uptake does not directly translate to mobile banking uptake and usage. The study finds there are contextual influences of usage specifically the social, technological, economic and banking environment that the usage decision is made in. Usage is therefore shaped by who the users are, their family dynamics and their economic status, who they associate with, the banking alternatives available and perceptions of risk both on an individual and societal level.

This IMTFI Blog summarizes a paper that presents an investigation of a pilot project that implemented a mobile payment platform in a poor community in Brazil.

Here is the link to the paper/final report: Mobile Payment for Financial Inclusion: Investigation of a Pilot Project in Brazil: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7403d5pr

Final Report/Synopsis of Research Results: This dissertation (link at bottom) is about the epistemic and policy evolution of the environmental financial mechanism of REDD+ (Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) in Brazil. Derived from the ecological or environmental economic model of creating economic incentives, REDD+ is rather a grand economic project of financializing the Amazonia, through public funds or markets, to reduce deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. This dissertation examines the mobilization, production and competition of various forms of knowledge(s) in designing and testing this economic invention.

In this study, I propose three research hypotheses. The first and underlying one is that in the cause of developing a global environmental financial mechanism as REDD+, there is not a single universal knowledge producer or justification, but rather there are multiple modes of knowing and thus multiple kinds of "knowers" as local or native to their social cultural contexts of knowing. The second hypothesis is that the multiple modes of knowing are in collaboration and negotiation with each other in a shared project, in this case, of REDD+. The third one is not so much a theoretical hypothesis, but more of an exploratory attempt on the role of anthropological research in collaborative knowledge production as in this case.

This ethnographic study is based on eighteen months of fieldwork among scientists, policymakers, carbon market practitioners, environmentalists as well as forest community residents in Brazil. My fieldwork relied primarily on ethnographic research methods, including participatory observation, in-depth interviews and archival research, but was also complemented by more structural and quantitative methods, such as policy network analysis and survey research.

This dissertation concludes supporting my first two research hypotheses. Ethnographic accounts of REDD+ knowledge production and mobilization reveal that multiple modes of knowing collaborate and negotiate with each other. Moreover, ethnographic research brings forth the productive, but yet informal, culture of cross field collaboration in scientific knowledge production. Beyond that, anthropologists may also help to enable various stakeholders to keep track of their positions in the complex process of carbon market making, especially those unprivileged stakeholders, such as the forest community residents, and the "Third World scientists."

El objetivo de esta investigación es evaluar cuán eficiente resulta el Ecosistema de los Ser- vicios Financiero Móviles (ESFM) para su expansión, haciendo énfasis en las necesidades de los sectores de menores ingresos. Esto se hace en un marco comparativo para cuatro países latinoamericanos: Perú, Guatemala, Paraguay y El Salvador. Para ello, se adapta la meto- dología del Entorno Regulatorio de Telecomunicaciones, provista por LIRNEasia (LIRNEasia, 2008) para evaluar las dimensiones del ESFM. Esta metodología se basa en cuestionarios que recojan las percepciones de los actores relevantes del sector. Para interpretar y entender los resultados, se elaboró, previamente, un diagnóstico del sector de telecomunicaciones, del sector financiero y de las dimensiones del ESFM para cada país. Los resultados muestran (consistentemente con el diagnóstico) que el entorno institucional es el más rezagado. Al mismo tiempo, las dimensiones asociadas al rol estatal se perciben como ineficientes, respecto al resto de dimensiones del entorno de mercado y el de usuario final.

This paper presents an investigation of a pilot project that implemented a mobile payment platform in a poor community in Brazil. This project involved the creation of a network of organizations that includes a local microfinance institution, a large retail bank, a mobile phone operator, an international credit card company, and an acquirer, as well as small local merchants. The objective of this paper is to describe the process in which this platform was created and how it was maintained through time, considering the business objectives of the partners involved. Two conceptual approaches were combined for developing a theoretical understanding of this pilot project first to describe the process of inter-organizational network establishment and second to analyze its evolution during its first year of operation. The study points to the critical role played by governance processes, the environmental dynamics, the two dimensions of adoption (users and merchants) in mobile payments platforms, and how it can compromise the success of establishment and maintenance of such inter-organizational networks.

This blogpost is an excerpt from a final report by Roxana Barrantes and Alvaro Grompone based upon their IMTFI-funded research project investigating financial inclusion efforts in Latin America through the expansion of mobile financial services. 

Full report (Spanish) accessible here: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0373q409

Research synopsis/final report for project: Material Cultures of Financial Literacy Among Rural and Urban Poor in Orissa, India

“Financial literacy” is now a key factor in poverty alleviation and financial inclusion programs in developing countries. Most discussions of financial literacy imply that it is merely a set of skills, but previous research shows that financial literacy is in fact shaped by social and cultural factors. This research project defines financial literacy as the material practices through which all people manage their resources, including those mediating the relationships between individuals and financial institutions. This suggests that the study of financial literacies among the “unbanked” can lead to more effective strategies for their financial inclusion. Our research focuses on India, where nearly 80 percent of the population—about 836 million people—lives on a half dollar a day. We will conduct ethnography in two low-income residential areas in Orissa state, one near financial institutions in the state capital and one far from financial institutions in a rural district. Through long, unstructured interviews with residents in each site, observations of daily life, and a subsequent survey, we will track the material objects through which people manage their resources—bank books, ration cards, purses, folders, boxes, shelves, bags, mobile phones, televisions, newspapers, weights and measures—and the ways people use them.

La experiencia reciente muestra que los servicios financieros móviles (SFM) tienen un enorme potencial para aumentar y transformar el acceso a servicios financieros de la población de menores recursos, tradicionalmente excluida de la oferta formal de intermediación financiera. La clave es que se aprovecha la penetración previa de la telefonía móvil, que se presenta como una solución a los problemas de infraestructura para la oferta de servicios financieros. Así, mediante esta plataforma, cuya expansión ha sido notable en países en vías de desarrollo, es posible brindar servicios financieros a quienes no los obtendrían de otro modo. El objetivo de esta investigación es evaluar cuán eficiente resulta el ecosistema de los SFM para su expansión, poniendo énfasis en las necesidades de los sectores de menores ingresos. La concepción de los SFM como un ecosistema sigue los lineamientos del World Economic Forum (2011). Este ecosistema se presenta como el soporte, desde el lado de la oferta, para el despliegue de estos servicios. La literatura propone el análisis del ecosistema en tres áreas: (1) entorno institucional, (2) entorno de mercado y (3) entorno de usuario final. Cada una de ellas se compone de diversas dimensiones que explican el despliegue de los SFM. El análisis ha sido realizado para cuatro países de Latinoamérica: El Salvador, Guatemala, Paraguay y Perú. Estos han iniciado el proceso que conduce a la adopción de SFM, y tienen programas de transferencias monetarias condicionadas (TMC), con lo que muestran un gran potencial hacia la inclusión financiera.

Este informe pretende ayudar a comprender los desafíos para la expansión de los servicios financieros móviles (SFM) en El Salvador, así como contribuir al conocimiento sobre su evolución y sobre la necesidad de la regulación de estos servicios. También, presenta información cualitativa y cuantitativa sobre el sector financiero y de telecomunicaciones, el grado de inclusión financiera, y la densidad y penetración de la telefonía móvil. Se ofrece una síntesis de la información disponible en torno a la propuesta de regulación de los SFM y se concluye con los resultados de una encuesta de opinión sobre el entorno institucional, el entorno de mercado y el entorno de usuario final de los SFM.

Este documento resume los hallazgos obtenidos en El Salvador sobre las condiciones para el despliegue de los Servicios Financieros Monetarios (SFM). Se desarrolla en el marco de una investigación que abarca también estudios de caso en Guatemala, Perú y Paraguay; y un estudio comparativo entre los países mencionados, donde se identificó a los SFM en una fase inicial de desarrollo y con gran potencial de despliegue. La información se basa en cuestionarios que recogen las percepciones de los actores relevantes entre setiembre y noviembre del 2012.