Access to basic services plays an important role in both individual well-being and a country's economic development. For this reason, general availability of these services to citizens, regardless of income level and geographical location, has generally been viewed as an important public policy...

Fintech is transforming the global financial landscape. It is creating new opportunities to advance financial inclusion and development in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs), but also presents risks that require updated supervision policy frameworks. Fintech encompasses new...

This note provides: (1) an overview of new manifestations of consumer risks that are significant and cross-cutting across four key fintech products: digital microcredit, P2PL, investment-based crowdfunding, and e-money; and (2) examples of emerging regulatory approaches to target such risks....

This paper discusses the role of the postal network in expanding access to financial services in Egypt. It reviews the public postal operator within the postal sector and within the broader context of the communications sector. The roles of the postal network and state and privately-owned banks...

This paper discusses the role of the postal network in expanding access to financial services in Egypt. It reviews the public postal operator within the postal sector and within the broader context of the communications sector. The roles of the postal network and state and privately-owned banks...

Regulating infrastructure utilities can be extremely complex and fraught with risks of political interference and capture by interest groups, especially in countries with little tradition of politically independent government agencies. To deal with these challenges, policymakers and regulators...

"The authors examine a unique public spending program that is proliferating across developing countries, the constituency development fund, to investigate when legislators exert more effort on behalf of their constituents. Using data from India, they find that legislator effort is significantly...

About 90 percent of the world's nearly 200 sovereign states have national legislatures or parliaments. With the spread of democracy and the rise of multiparty political systems, these bodies are playing larger roles in government. Increasingly, legislatures and their members perform four...