Were you on the road? New to our blog? Spending some time with family? Here’s a recap of what we’ve been blogging about this past month.

• Denise Dias wrote about Brazil’s efforts to provide greater availability of basic banking services through government payments: Brazil banks on financial inclusion through government transfers;
• Brian Cox of MFX Solutions explored the relationship between good microfinance technology and currency risks and hedging;
• Sarah Rotman assessed reports that M-PESA was on the rebound in Tanzania;
• I interviewed Michele Scanlon, a rather savvy player and observer of all things mobile banking in Africa, as part of our podcast series for “Branchless Banking Scenarios for 2020;”
• Kabir Kumar explored the new business models we’re seeing as service providers from formerly unconnected fields are linking up to deploy mobile banking, a topic so important, it took not one but two blog posts;
• Rizza Maniego-Eala of G-Xchange (a subsidiary of Globe Telecom) explained her firm’s new strategy for mobile banking in the Philippines;
• Kabir, who has worked closely with Rizza for more than two years on the CGAP component of Globe’s GCASH services, shared his own perspective with “Globe Telecom’s experience in the unbanked market,” as well as asking the question, “Do low-income mobile phone users want mobile money?“
• Away from the Philippines, Kabir deconstructed the story behind the Tameer Microfinance Bank/Telenor Pakistan branchless banking deployment: What happens when a mobile operator and a microfinance bank join up? EasyPaisa launches in Pakistan;
• I reflected on “Branchless Banking Scenarios for 2020″ as we released the paper: How a younger world and the internet will change financial inclusion: Scenarios for 2020;
• Lauren Braniff sent this dispatch on information systems in microfinance in Rwanda.

Don’t miss any blog posts - subscribe via email.

-Jim Rosenberg