Financial services

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Financial services

Financial services associations: an imperfect solution

This is the first blog in a series about financial services associations based on an FSD Kenya commissioned survey by BFA.

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Blog
Financial services

In Kenya, bank accounts again more popular than m-pesa – why?

Retail banks can still thrive in the face of mobile money, as long as they are prepared to adapt

This blog was originally published by CGAP.

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Financial service providers
Financial services

Finance and living well

Kenya’s more successful mass market financial solutions have demonstrated the importance of social values by enabling poor Kenyans to manage their money in ways that cultivate their visions of well being.

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Blog
Financial services

10 things you didn’t know about financial inclusion in Kenya

Financial inclusion is growing, and fast. Kenyans excluded from any form of financial service dropped from over 40% of adults to 17% between 2006 and 2016.

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Payments
Financial services

Person-to-government (P2G) payment digitisation: Lessons from Kenya

This study was originally published by GSMA on their wesbite.

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3rd FSD Kenya Public annual lecture 2017 – Watch Online
Publications
Financial services

Creating value through financial inclusion

2016 marked the first year of FSD’s strategy for the period 2016 to 2021. The financial landscape in Kenya has evolved in ways far beyong the vision of FSD Kenya at our inception in 2005.

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Publications
Financial services

Regulation 2.0 – Gazing into the crystal ball

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Blog
Financial services

How much does it cost to run bank accounts in Kenya?

Although this question seems simple and straightforward, answering it is more difficult than it looks.

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News and events
Financial services

Providing transparent pricing information could save bank customers up to KSh 10,000 a year

Mystery shopper exercises carried out over several weeks in 2015 and 2016 mirrored a typical customer’s journey in which most customers obtain information on banking from branches. But despite visiting over 30 bank branches, customer care representatives, bank websites, enquiring from colleagues and friends, we still couldn’t get consistent pricing information.

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Publications
Financial services

The price of being banked

This report outlines the findings from a two-year study by FSD Kenya to understand the costs for banking services in Kenya. Two rounds of mystery shopping surveys were completed in October and November of 2015 and 2016
to build a database and measure the costs for basic bundles of transactions such as opening, running and closing bank accounts.

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Article
Financial services

The price of being banked

Kenya has experienced tremendous improvements in access to financial services over the last few years. However, little is known about the trends in affordability of financial services, especially for low-income earners.

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News and events
Financial services

Mystery shopping exercise reveals need to improve price transparency in banking sector

Do you know how much it costs to run your bank account? It’s no surprise that many of us do not know the cost of banking in Kenya. Pricing information is not easy to find and sometimes even staff at bank branches do not provide accurate information.

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Blog
Financial services

Why price transparency in banking is good business

Banking remains the largest sub-sector by assets and the most systemically significant in Kenya’s financial services sector. Developments, especially those enabled by technology, have brought a sizeable number of new, mostly poorer and vulnerable first-time consumers into the market.

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Publications
Financial services

The impact of financial services associations

Financial services associations (FSAs) are rural community-level member based semi-informal financial institutions, that are a hybrid of savings and credit cooperative organizations (SACCOs) and microfinance institutions (MFIs).

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FinAccess
Financial services

January 2017 quarterly newsletter

This quarter’s e-newsletter is out!

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Blog
Financial services

Unlocking opportunities for the poor, Part One

For seven years, Najiri has received bi-monthly cash transfers from the Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP) a Kenyan government program in Northern Kenya

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Article
Financial services

3rd FSD Kenya Public annual lecture 2017 – Out of Africa: notes from a visit to Kenya

I spent a week in Kenya, courtesy of Financial Sector Deepening, an initiative of a number of aid agencies, including Britain’s Department for International Development, the Swedish government, and the Gates Foundation. 

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Government and regulators
Financial services

SACCO regulation in Kenya

There has been a considerable amount of commentary in the press recently on the stability of the savings and credit cooperatives (SACCO) sector in Kenya based on a report released by the FSD network.

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Events
Financial services

3rd FSD Kenya Public annual lecture 2017 – The state of the world and the future of finance

Leading British economist delivers third annual lecture on financial inclusion

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Dataset
Financial services

M-PESA panel survey 2008-2014

In order to understand the take‐up, use, and impacts of M‐PESA in Kenya, US based Principal Investigators William Jack (Georgetown) and Tavneet Suri (MIT Sloan School of Management) conducted a set of five surveys across Kenya, starting in yearly between 2008 and 2011, with a fifth survey conducted in 2014 to look at the longer-term impacts of M-PESA.

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Article
Financial services

3rd FSD Kenya Public annual lecture 2017 – PICTURES: Kay and industry leaders discuss the future of finance

Just what is finance for?

On Wednesday 8th February 2017, John Kay met with 18 financial sector industry leaders to discuss this question and the future of finance in Kenya.

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Annual lectures
Financial services

3rd FSD Kenya Public annual lecture 2017 – John Kay

Over 250 policymakers, industry players, regulators, lecturers, students, financial sector analysts, development practitioners and other guests gathered at the National Museum’s Louis Leakey Auditorium on Thursday 9th February 2017 for the 3rd FSD Kenya annual lecture on financial inclusion.

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Article
Financial services

3rd FSD Kenya Public annual lecture 2017 – Kay shares why it’s possible to have ‘too much of a good thing.’

During his delivery of the 3rd FSD Kenya annual lecture on financial inclusion, John Kay argued that the challenge for emerging economies is to avoid the mistakes of the west and to instead focus on building a financial sector that is focussed on the core needs of the non-financial economy.

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Events
Financial services

3rd FSD Kenya Public annual lecture 2017 – Have you booked your seat?

Leading British economist to deliver the 2017 lecture

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3rd FSD Kenya Public annual lecture 2017 – Invite
Events
Financial services

3rd FSD Kenya Public annual lecture 2017 – Invite

John Kay is a renowned British economist, and until recently, a columnist with London’s Financial Times (FT).

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Blog
Financial services

Studying shocks to identify opportunities for financial service providers

Diversification of risk, not putting your eggs in one basket, hustling – whichever word or phrase you use, Robert, a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) rider, embodies this spirit.

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Gender & women’s economic empowerment
Financial services

Policy expert welcomes new era for financial sector innovation

Kenya’s annual financial inclusion lecture sets out how to protect consumers and drive growth in financial services

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