Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

In the retail industry, consumer credit is sometimes seen as a dangerous parasite that can become bigger than its host. Credit cards are marketing devices that aim at easing the attachment between consumers and goods. Credit cards are also value meters that trace every single transaction. Credit cards can even be “gardening” tools. Sowing is the name used in Chile’s retail industry to call the data management strategy that consists of extending the credit limit of low income customers depending on their payment behavior. Data on previous transactions and behavior replaces collateral. Credit cards are not only used by the persons whose names are on the cards; People borrow and loan their cards, or, more precisely, their cards’ credit limits. Credit cards do not trace behavior but hidden networks. Can social relations act as parasites on credit – uninvited guests whose host is already a parasite? This article tells the story of a study that started in the middle – credit cards – and slowly became a Serresian economic anthropology.

Almost all the micro-finance institutions (MFIs) in Kenya have introduced mobile money to increase the convenience and speed of transactions, and to lower the cost of transferring funds. Since most MFIs had already established their brick-and-mortar operations, mobile money only complements their traditional approaches to serving their clients. Musoni, a relatively new MFI, provides micro-finance purely through mobile technology. This cashless model eliminates some administrative costs and makes transactions efficient for both the customers and the MFI. The uptake has been impressive and the model is believed to help reduce client groups’ meeting frequency, leaving customers more time for business and increasing customer loyalty. The researchers proposed to establish preliminary evidence of the impact of pure mobile money on the consumers of Musoni services. The qualitative data was collected through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews while quantitative data was collected via structured questionnaires. From the study, it was observed that mobile money, when bundled with other products, became more valuable to customers and made the other products more appreciated. There was also an element of increased savings as a result of using mobile money. In addition, there was an apparent shift to mobile money for other transactions.

This study provides insights into the ancient susu savings operation in Ghana and the behavioral intention or willingness of susu collectors and users to adopt a mobile money (MM) platform as part of their savings practices. More specifically, this study investigates factors that determine one’s intention to adopt the MM space as a savings channel, particularly in place of more traditional ways of saving among many people in West Africa. The study reports many interesting findings but one that is striking is the physical presence of the susu collector, which was found to be statistically significant but having a negative influence on one’s behavioral intention to accept MM. This, which was found to be the primary reason motivating susu users to honor their savings commitment, is potentially an important factor in explaining why respondents were not sure whether an MM platform would be an effective method of saving. While MM uptake remains significantly low, the study findings suggest that the way to increase uptake is to create more awareness, embark on financial literacy programs, and reduce mistrust and perception of risk of the MM platform.

There is by now ample evidence that the poor lack access to basic financial services. It is, therefore, no surprise that financial inclusion has become a focus of attention for development professionals seeking to alleviate poverty around the world. However, the nature of poverty and deprivation, the livelihood, and the financial needs of the poor vary widely across different contexts. In India, for instance, the financial needs and practices of the poor differ across rural and urban areas. An in-depth understanding of the financial behavior of the rural and urban poor is essential for designing the right product-mix that addresses their needs. Our study contributes to this goal by examining how the rural and urban poor in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, manage their money. We adopted the “Q-squared” methodology (combining quantitative and qualitative methods) to gain a holistic understanding of the financial behavior of these two distinct populations. We used financial diaries to collect data on income, consumption, savings, borrowing and lending from a sample of poor households over a period of six months. Our research subjects were mostly women. In general, the study found that these populations shared a similar practice of diversifying portfolios of savings, borrowing and insurance products. At the same time, the research found evidence of diverse financial needs of the rural and urban poor. Mainly, the study found that the two disctinct populations differ in (a) the activities for which they use the various financial tools and (b) the degree of access to a diversified portfolio of services.

With mobile money technologies, people use mobile phones to send money to friends and relatives, connect to bank accounts, and make payments. This research examines the role of mobile money in Kenyans’ social and economic networks. Research reported was conducted in Bungoma and Trans-Nzoia Counties in Kenya, and among Kenyans living in Chicago, Illinois in the summer of 2012.Although mobile money services are often described as a form of “banking,” most users in Western Kenya use mobile money as a social and economic tool through which they create relationships by sending money and airtime gifts. A wide range of mobile money uses includes social gifting, assisting friends and relatives, organizing savings groups, and contributing to ceremonies and rituals.Even though mobile money was designed for person-to-person transfers, its practices are best understood as created by collectivities and groups. In savings groups, groups of siblings and other relatives, and communities who contribute to ceremonies, users “save with others” through the entrustment of value to kin and friends and create new groups and communities based around the “floating world” of mobile technology. Individuals balance their social and economic capital in order to create marginal gains and mediate the conflicts created between social obligations and personal economic betterment. Ties to and through mothers are prominent in social networks of mobile money flows. Matrilineal kinship ties are a means of sharing or circulating money among those marginalized from access to other resources and forms of value.

In 2011, sixty-five percent of India’s population did not have access to a bank account (Global Findex 2011). India has the second largest financially excluded poor in the world with more than half of its population considered as financially underserved At the same time, India is one of the fastest growing markets for mobile phones. Given the rising mobile phone usage in the country, M-Banking has a great potential for enabling financial inclusion of the poor. India has attained near universal telecom access with one of the lowest–cost retail distribution networks. Among the myriad M-banking services currently underway, EKO’s Simplibank offers one of the most promising initiatives in mobile money operating on a low-cost banking platform. Launched in 2007 through a partnership between the start-up company EKO and the State Bank of India (SBI), this mobile money service initially operated as a pilot project in the cities of Delhi, Bihar and Jharkhand. By 2011, EKO had captured a wider consumer base as a business correspondent of SBI through its new product for domestic remittances. EKO partners with a network of agents—chemists, grocers, airtime vendors—to provide banking services to people with no access to formal bank accounts.This paper explores the everyday use and effects of EKO mobile banking. It discusses findings from a recently concluded study of 160 customers, 20 customer service points (CSPs)/agents, and key functionaries of EKO in Delhi.

Most studies of mobile money for the poor focus narrowly on questions of technical design and  pay little attention to the various needs of the poor and their complex relationships with money and financial services.  In order to fill the current knowledge gap and to better inform the design of new mobile money systems for the purpose of financial inclusion, this study investigates social relationships and payment practices among the poor in rural Ethiopia. A study of existing payment practices in Ethiopia is pertinent especially given the recent proliferation of various mobile money initiatives. Two key questions face mobile money professionals and scholars of financial inclusion alike: How will these mobile money initiatives reach out to the local population? How will they incorporate existing (albeit unbanked) financial practices? This paper aims to lay the ground for designing mobile money products and services that cater to local institutions and practices. The paper, therefore, explores the social dynamics of various local financial practices—informal savings and loans institutions, monetary and non-monetary gifts, and payments to people with power and to deities.

This paper explores modernity and gender in a traditional society, focusing on the informal storing of money among indigenous populations in the Philippines, through 69 semi-structured interviews and observations. In these indigenous populations – Bontoc, Tagbanua and Higaonon – traditional forms of money are utilized side by side the modern form depending on the type of transaction. Money storage patterns differ by gender, arising from varying comfort zones, spending frequency, and amount of money stored. Modernity reworks traditional gender relations between spouses where money becomes a source of conflict, as they maintain tradition and absorb modern ideas of individuality and empowerment.

The article focuses on the frameworks of calculation and margins of calculability accessed by indigenous families in their financial practices. In a region that is considered one of the poorest in Mexico and still largely based on a “milpa system”, barter and the “reciprocal hand,” the indigenous way of life is facing important changes. We argue that arithmetic is signified in the light of beliefs, fears and hopes in the struggles for certainty and adaptation and negotiations with modernity.

This paper examines the various practices used to achieve income and consumption smoothing amongst the poorest households in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It looks at selected 125 households, representing 25 households in each of the five regions of the Yogyakarta area. It designated how rural financial institution and other can help them to have better smoothing strategy. We found that the behaviour varies in response to the types of profession and gender. Furthermore, the source of the income fluctuation also matters in determining households’ responses. However, the source of the consumption fluctuation did not appear to differ across professions.