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Moving Towards the Digital, Omnipresent, Transparent and Profitable Banks of Tomorrow
November 7, 2013 Editor 0
Banks across the world are facing multiple pressures on their profitability with tighter regulatory requirements, changing customer preferences and increased competition. Go to Source
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The new bank for rural poor: The post office
March 12, 2013 Editor 0
Post offices in Nigeria are becoming surrogate bank branches for the unbanked rural poor, under a government project launched last month. Opening new bank branches in remote areas to reach the financially excluded is often prohibitively expensive, because the rural poor wouldn’t use a branch enough to cover its costs.
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The biggest microlender of them all
January 14, 2013 Editor 0
THERE are an estimated 120,000 microfinance initiatives worldwide but Thailand’s “Village and Urban Revolving Fund” lends more money to more people than any other. The scheme’s outstanding loan portfolio totalled $4.9 billion in 2011; the number of active borrowers that year stood at 8.5m. Those numbers are swelling. Yingluck Shinawatra, the Thai prime minister (pictured […]
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Financial Liberalization and Foreign Bank Entry on the Domestic Banking Performance in MENA Countries
October 2, 2012 Editor 0
Abstract : This study examines the impact of financial liberalization and foreign bank entry on the domestic banking sector from 1996 to 2007, and builds upon and expands the work of Lee (2002). We find that foreign bank entry, financial liberalization, ownership structure and degree of openness of foreign bank entry positively impact domestic banking system operating efficiency, capitalization, risk management, long-term soundness, financial performance as well as economic and financial development.
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World Bank Group’s ICT Strategy – Using ICT for Greater Development Impact
August 23, 2012 Editor 0
The World Bank Group’s ICT Strategy was released last month. The video above (approx. 4 minutes long) features World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development Rachel Kyte highlighting the importance of the sector to the Bank and some of the opportunities that we see in terms of open development. Basically, the straetegy is based on three different […]
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Can industries take flight in conflict situations?
August 13, 2012 Editor 0
The World Bank is actively expanding its portfolio in the world’s most troubled conflict zones. This invites the question: What can the Bank accomplish in countries riven by conflict? I would flip this question around and ask: What steps are needed by the country to rebuild itself? Whenever I have asked in-country practitioners (whether Bank […]
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