CGAP

08/29/2025

1.3B people lack access to formal financial services. can help close these gaps by enabling secure data sharing with providers of choice, while fostering competition & inclusivity.

We identify 6 levers for success in in CPI's TechREG Chronicle:

Open Finance enables secure, consent-driven data sharing among individuals, financial institutions, third-party providers and platforms, offering

08/27/2025

💡 Women aren’t just half the world’s population—they are some of the main drivers of rural economies. ♀🌍

For too long, rural women have been seen as a monolith. In reality, they play diverse and vital roles—as unpaid laborers, service providers, customers, and employees. Yet, they often lack the tailored services they need to thrive.

Accelerating Business to Empower Rural women in Agriculture (ABERA) is a cohort of financial service providers, agribusinesses, and agtechs, organized by CGAP and IDH, that aims to improve these companies’ impact on rural women in a way that makes business sense.

Watch our video to see how the companies can rethink their approach, ask the right questions, and truly involve women in building a more inclusive and climate-resilient future. 👇

08/25/2025

When floods, droughts, and extreme heat disrupt livelihoods, they also disrupt the financial lives of those most vulnerable. Repayment rates fall, borrowing declines, insurance becomes harder to price, and providers pull back.

New evidence from the Pakistan Microfinance Network suggests that there is significant reason to worry about growing climate risk undermining the progress made worldwide on .

If we want financial inclusion to keep advancing, we need to urgently support grassroots by strengthening the financial institutions that serve climate-vulnerable communities.

08/20/2025

How could gender-blind approaches hinder ?

Regulators may assume that a gender-neutral approach to financial policy will benefit everyone. In reality, ignoring gender can exclude women from accessing essential services like credit and unintentionally leave women behind.

Gender-intentional financial regulations can ensure policies consider the unique constraints women face. That’s why CGAP is mapping how regulations impact women’s financial inclusion—and working to equip regulators with tools for change.

💡 Want to see how we can close the gender gap in finance? Watch the video to find out more! 🎥👇

08/18/2025

Digital credit is fast, private, and convenient for consumers. It is also potentially risky.

Fraud, data misuse, lack of transparency, and over-indebtedness can undermine trust and harm borrowers. Addressing these challenges requires a disciplined approach to risk management—identifying risks early, preventing them where possible, mitigating those that can’t be avoided, and resolving harm swiftly.

All stakeholders have a role in building a safer, more responsible digital credit ecosystem that delivers positive outcomes for customers.

08/15/2025

More than a third of adults in low-income countries personally experienced a natural disaster or extreme weather event in the last 3 years and, according to new data from the latest , this is having major consequences for people’s livelihoods and their abilities to cope financially.

On a more hopeful note, the same report found that 3 in 4 adults affected by a natural disaster have a financial account – highlighting the untapped role that local financial systems can play in facilitating access to adaptation finance and grassroots resilience building.

Our latest blog takes a deep dive into the Findex’s data at the intersection of climate shocks, resilience, and financial services, and underscores the vital importance of generating bottom-up data on climate adaptation: https://cgap.pub/4ludoJx

08/14/2025

We reviewed regulatory approaches in over 100 jurisdictions and found that there is no universal playbook.

➡ Definitions of AI vary across standard-setting bodies and authorities

➡ Regulations range from high-level principles to detailed requirements

➡ Some focus on trust and human oversight, others on specific AI applications or centralized registries

While there’s no clear consensus on the optimal governance model yet, proactive and adaptive regulation will be essential to harness AI’s potential in finance — responsibly.

Watch the video to see how regulators are navigating risk, trust, and opportunity in the age of AI 👇

08/12/2025

Despite global progress, meaningful gender gaps in account ownership still persist in 65 economies.

The latest blog in our Findex series unpacks new data on women’s financial inclusion and identifies the opportunities ahead: https://cgap.pub/4mG7mGO

08/11/2025

Inclusive financial services are essential to making work for low-income communities.

Financial products like credit, savings, and digital payments can help ensure that carbon markets deliver meaningful benefits for local communities — especially for women and underserved groups. Without them, the promise of inclusive, high-integrity carbon markets remains out of reach.

In Carbon Pulse, we argue why must be embedded in carbon project design from the start.

Read the op-ed here:

Published 08:42 on July 17, 2025 / Last updated at 08:42 on July 17, 2025 / Americas (LATAM & Caribbean), Asia Pacific (Asia), EMEA (Africa), Nature-based Carbon (Forestry, Other NbS), Net Zero Transition (Investment, Reporting & Disclosure), Other Content (Contributed Content), Voluntary (VCM Gover...

08/09/2025

is climbing the global policy agenda — but without consistent, practical ways to measure it, progress is hard to track.

The 2025 takes a big step forward, expanding coverage across four key dimensions of financial health. It’s not the full picture yet, but it’s closing a critical data gap and sparking collaboration between public and private actors.

Read more here: https://cgap.pub/45oZfaB

08/06/2025

In ’s turmeric value chain, do 80% of the labor—most of it grueling, manual, and unmechanized. But what if -smart tools powered by the sun could ease this burden and boost incomes?

Through , CGAP, IDH, and Samunnati are exploring how innovative finance—including blended tools like social success notes—can help women farmers and FPOs access dryers, peelers, and polishers. These green technologies not only reduce drudgery and improve product quality—they’re essential for powering productivity in off-grid areas.

Read more: https://cgap.pub/4omOEWh

08/05/2025

Inclusive finance is a lifeline — so why do we keep ignoring it?

In her latest op-ed for Devex, CGAP CEO Sophie Sirtaine calls on funders, policymakers & financial institutions to prioritize inclusive finance in resilience strategies.

Read it here:

Opinion: In today’s increasingly fragile global landscape, inclusive finance is a powerful yet overlooked solution for building resilience as it puts solutions directly into the hands of people most at risk.