Jim Rosenberg

Jim Rosenberg is the Communications Officer for the CGAP Technology Program and manages the CGAP Technology Blog. In previous incarnations Jim has been a Web editor at the World Bank, a satellite radio producer, and a business reporter at WAMU-FM, the National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate in Washington DC. As a local reporter he contributed frequently to Marketplace, the public radio business program of record in the United States. He holds a master’s in Journalism from Columbia University. Contact Jim Rosenberg.

Microfinance Technology Headlines for June 29, 2009

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The Hype Cycle and Mobile Banking, 2009

Just over a year ago in Cairo, we convened the first Mobile Money Summit with our friends at the GSMA, DFID and IFC. The diversity of the crowd was fantastic - people from all over the world and all sorts of business - from mobile network operators to vendors to financial institutions. It might sound corny, but Hannes Van Rensburg captured the mood quite well: “A general spirit of: ‘Let’s build the industry’ rather than criticise each other prevailed.” (Mobile Payments have arrived)

Today’s the second and final day of this year’s Mobile Money Summit, and the key words here are data and partnerships:

Data - around the market opportunity for mobile money - by the year 2012 CGAP and GSMA estimate there will be 1.7 billion people with a mobile phone but not a bank account and as many as 364 million unbanked people could be reached by agent-networked banking through mobile phones;

Partnerships - a slew of deals announced yesterday illustrate the momentum around mobile banking services, notably: Visa Launches First Commercial Mobile Payment Service in Latin America. Read the rest of this page »

Microfinance Technology Headlines for June 22, 2009

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What is the role of mobile operators in expanding access to finance?

Mobile phones may have a huge role to play in expanding access to finance. But does the company that operates the mobile network need to actually provide financial services? Or should others offer financial services, with the mobile operator merely providing the underlying wireless connectivity? The fact that mobile phones can be used as transactional devices doesn’t necessarily mean that the mobile operator needs to “own” the financial service.

That’s the subject of a new CGAP brief authored by Ignacio Mas and me. Read it here.

Microfinance Technology Headlines for June 15, 2009

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An M-PESA pioneer: Nick Hughes

Our friends at Microfinance Podcast have just posted this interview with Nick Hughes, who has been instrumental in getting M-PESA up and running.

Nick was at an event we did in Washington and you can watch that here.

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Microfinance Technology Headlines for June 8, 2009

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“Banking where electrons have never been before….”

…so said Daryl Skoog, Chief Technology Officer,  Opportunity International - one of three panelists at our webinar on information systems and microfinance. He was referring to the fact that we all have a ways to go when it comes to getting the right technology to microfinance organizations in remote areas where electricity, let alone connectivity, is available. We took questions from the audience and through our website - read those here.

Watch the video:

http://streaming3.worldbank.org/ramgen/CGP/2009-06-03/CGAP_BBL.rm

Technology is consistently cited as one of the greatest challenges faced by microfinance institutions (MFIs) around the world. It is widely recognized that technology is invaluable for improving efficiency, accuracy, increasing outreach and reducing costs. However, many MFIs lack sufficient funds to invest in suitable backend technologies, or operate in regions where access to critical infrastructure – such as the internet – remains scarce. Still others sink funds into poor technology investments, or simply choose not to invest, limiting their ability to grow and compete.

The occasion for the webinar - the results of a new survey on MIS for MFIs. We thank our speakers:

The IS Fund is a joint initiative of CGAP and the EU/ACP Microfinance Programme. The European Commission’s support to the Technology Program is part of its Microfinance Programme for Africa,
the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP), which aims to contribute to poverty reduction through the development of more performing and effective financial services for poor people.

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Microfinance Technology Headlines for June 1, 2009

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Microfinance and mobile banking highlights from CGAP - May 2009

I was thinking last week…why not share a round-up of links at the end of every month - in case you missed something. What do you think? For the month of May on the CGAP Technology Blog:

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