Financial Well-being and Social Protection

This policy note reviews recent amendments to RBI regulations, and examines whether these regulations align with the requirements of microfinance clients. The note also puts forth recommendations for reforming guidelines regarding the eligibility of MFIs for priority sector lending.

This policy note summarizes evidence of the existence of informal insurance networks and the extent of such informal exchanges in community level financial management. It provides information regarding the interaction of the informal and formal insurance markets, assessing the demand … Read More

This policy note reports the results of a systematic review of the empirical literature investigating the impact of access to formal banking services on the income of the poor. Taking a functional approach to finance, the authors define formal banking … Read More

Many of India’s domestic migrants (a group that numbers 100 million by some estimates) regularly confront a significant problem: how to move money from where it is earned in one part of the country to another part of the country … Read More

This CMF study looks into how the access to microfinance has dried up for the people in this region. What are their current options as far as access to credit is concerned? The report attempts to throw light on various … Read More

This report presents insights from a study undertaken as a part of the Microfinance Researchers Alliance Program (MRAP), a research capacity development programme run by the Centre for Micro Finance (CMF) at IFMR Research. The study throws light on how … Read More

This study uses in-depth interviews to understand how women decide to be clients of an MFI, which factors guide loan usage and repayment, and women’s negotiating powers within the household. The focus is on the micro-credit client rather than the … Read More

For anyone trading or investing in a product, knowledge of prevailing market prices is of utmost significance. For products with high price volatility, informed future pricing can affect current investment decisions as well as lead to more accurate price expectations. … Read More

Agents continue to be the lifeblood of India’s life insurance sector, even with rapid urbanisation and advent of customer-friendly technologies. As there are several complexities associated with the sector, most consumers prefer taking the agent route to purchase a policy … Read More

A growing body of literature examines the causal impact of financial literacy on individual, household, and firm level outcomes. This paper unpacks the mechanism of impact by focusing on the first link in the causal chain. Specifically, it studies the … Read More