This paper surveys existing literature and data to take stock of the current state of banking systems across Sub-Saharan Africa. It documents different dimensions of the development of the banking systems...
Treating data collected pre- and post-COVID-19 as a quasi-experiment, this paper examines the importance of presumed enablers and safeguards in driving the observed expansion of digital payments and digital...
Trade credit remains an important source of finance for firms in developing countries and many firms in developed countries, especially those that are young, small, or informationally opaque for other...
This paper reviews evidence on agent networks of microfinance institutions and other financial services providers, which have expanded rapidly in recent years in some low- and middle-income contexts. There...
Interest Bearing Notes is a product of the Finance and Private Sector Research Team in the World Bank's Development Research Group. It reports on research by the team, as well as non-World Bank research...
Interest Bearing Notes is a product of the Finance and Private Sector Research Team in the World Bank's Development Research Group. It reports on research by the team, as well as non-World Bank research...
Interest Bearing Notes is a product of the Finance and Private Sector Research Team in the World Bank's Development Research Group. It reports on research by the team, as well as non-World Bank research...
Today’s unprecedented growth of data and their ubiquity in our lives are signs that the data revolution is transforming the world. And yet much of the value of data remains untapped. Data collected for...
Today’s unprecedented growth of data and their ubiquity in our lives are signs that the data revolution is transforming the world. And yet much of the value of data remains untapped. Data collected for...
Interest Bearing Notes is a product of the Finance and Private Sector Research Team in the World Bank's Development Research Group. It reports on research by the team, as well as non-World Bank research...
This paper uses a unique data set with 1.1 million customer transactions from a microfinance institution in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2017 to 2018. The paper provides evidence of assortative...
What major insights have emerged from development economics in the past decade, and how do they matter for the World Bank? This challenging question was recently posed by World Bank Group President David...
This paper summarizes the latest update of the World Bank Bank Regulation and Supervision Survey. The paper explores and summarizes the evolution in bank capital regulations, capitalization of banks, market...
This study seeks to estimate the effects of access to agent banking on opening and usage of a savings account in urban and peri-urban areas in Senegal. A randomly selected group of individuals were given...
This paper uses a randomized controlled trial to study the effects of access to agent banking. Individuals were encouraged to open an account and transact at a banking agent or a branch of a financial...
This paper presents recent trends in government and foreign bank ownership across countries and summarizes the evidence regarding the implications of bank ownership structure for bank performance and competition...
Microfinance is generally seen as a way to fix credit markets and unleash the productive capacities of poor people who are dependent on self-employment. The microfinance sector has grown quickly since...
The paper provides evidence on the number and volume of financial transactions undertaken by agents (local businesses that double as more convenient, lower cost alternatives to formal branches) of the...
Using a new, nationally representative sample of Chinese households, this paper studies how social capital affects access to credit and its implications for consumption levels. The paper focuses on two...
Recent evidence suggests only modest social and economic impacts of microfinance. Favorable cost-benefit ratios then depend on low costs. This paper uses proprietary data on 1,335 microfinance institutions...