Despite its proven benefits, take-up and continued usage of digital financial services (DFS) lags in many low- and middle-income countries. Though this challenge is multifaceted, the cost of using DFS, particularly mobile money, is a key barrier. However, little has been done to systematically measure and monitor the true costs of conducting DFS transactions, including official fees, extra informal charges, and non-monetary costs such as failed transactions. To address this gap, Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) created the Transaction Cost Index (TCI). You can learn more about the TCI on our new landing page, which includes an interactive dashboard and the comparative report of TCI’s first year.

In this webinar, William Blackmon (IPA) and Xavier Giné (World Bank) will introduce results from the TCI, including a comparison of prices across 16 countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, and fieldwork that explores hidden costs in Bangladesh, Tanzania, and Uganda. The webinar will conclude with a panel, featuring Jayshree Venkatesan (Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion) and William Mng’ong’ose (Bank of Tanzania) to discuss the TCI’s implications for regulators, policy, and financial inclusion. The webinar will be moderated by Paul Adams (IPA).

P.S. Are you a government regulator or a financial service provider? Put your transaction cost knowledge to the test before our webinar by filling out this survey.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Best Regards,
IPA Financial Inclusion Program