Dear RFILC members,

Our June’s newsletter is focused to the topic of financial inclusion. It is known that the expansion of financial services depends on the offer of benefits to both providers and customers and the existence of customer financial capability to avoid over-indebtedness or inactive accounts. Therefore, our fist highlight is the report published by the Center for Financial Inclusion entitled “A Change in Behavior: Innovations in Financial Capability”. It reviews the current landscape of financial capability interventions and it highlights a trend in its early stages that ties financial capability interventions more closely to actual customer behavior, especially at critical decision-making moments, when signing up for and using financial products. This trend also takes into account insights about how people learn and the kinds of support they need to achieve their goals. Expanding this behaviorally-informed approach, which is already occurring to varying degrees, will require creativity beyond the traditional modes of financial education that dominate the scene, and it will require greater involvement by providers, who are uniquely placed to meet clients at those critical decision moments.

The second highlight is the paper published by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) “Advancing financial inclusion through access to insurance: the role of postal networks”. The study draws on the existing literature on Posts, insurance and financial inclusion. The study starts with an overview of financial inclusion and what Posts have done, particularly in the field of insurance as one of four pillars of financial inclusion. However, it shows there is a persistent insurance gap, particularly in developing countries. In the study, three types of business models for postal insurance are presented along with case studies based on the experience of six Posts of developing countries – Kazakhstan, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Morocco, Zambia and India. The study concludes by providing recommendations for Posts, insurance companies and policymakers on how they can work together to expand insurance coverage in their countries.

Finally, the 1st Annual Financial Inclusion Africa Summit will take place at Nairobi, Kenya on 30th June – 1st July 2016. This conference will front the conversation on how formal and informal financial sectors can optimize on financial inclusion to make more revenue and contribute to eradicating poverty by ensuring availability, adequacy, affordability and accessibility of financial services to vulnerable groups. For the registration and more information, click here.

Best regards,

The RFILC editorial team