CGAP

In Mexico, only 23% of adults have any insurance, and just 18% of women are insured. While access to accounts, payments, and credit has expanded, insurance still lags behind.

Reaching underserved populations will require a more inclusive approach.

A recent multi-stakeholder roundtable by Fundación MetLife México, MetLife Foundation, and CGAP identified four interconnected opportunities to advance inclusive insurance and improve financial resilience and wellbeing in Mexico:

✅ Modernize regulation for a broader inclusive insurance approach.
✅ Center customers in product design, delivery, and supervision.
✅ Strengthen collaboration across public, private, and nonprofit actors.
✅ Embed insurance in national financial inclusion and wellbeing strategies.

The key takeaway for all jurisdictions: scaling inclusive insurance will require policymakers, regulators, insurers, and civil society to work together — using evidence, learning from experience, and committing to sustained action.

Learn more in our latest blog: https://cgap.pub/4zfs0o0

From the dusty roadside kiosks of Senegal to the fresh produce markets of Kenya, a slow revolution is underway. 📈

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, code is quietly emerging across the financial landscape – but the latest Global Findex 2025 data reveals that it may not yet be strong enough to loosen the unshakable grip of cash..

A comparison of two types of digital payments—Person to Person (P2P) vs. Person to Business (P2B) —across eight digitally mature, low- to lower-middle-income Sub-Saharan African countries reveals a consistent trend: person-to-business (P2B) payments lag significantly behind person-to-person (P2P) payments.

🔍 Examine our poster below to find out more, and read the full blog here: https://cgap.pub/4lWbimI

For too long, disaster risk reduction, humanitarian anticipatory action, and climate insurance have shared the vocabulary of resilience but rarely spoken the same language.

Evidence from the Pacific Islands to Cuba suggests that change is possible.

🔹 Risk reduction drives insurability: In Cuba, agricultural cooperatives using DRR measures lowered their vulnerability scores and crop losses (from 15% to 7%), earning reduced insurance premiums.

🔹 Anticipatory action redefines insurance: In Fiji, forecast index insurance releases up to 20% of payouts 48–72 hours before a cyclone hits, giving communities resources to prepare rather than just repair.

🔹 Community is the first mile: Embedding local agents and design partners ensures financial protection is accessible, affordable, and built on trusted social structures.

The insurance industry cannot remain viable through post-disaster payouts alone. To close the protection gap, financial models must actively incentivize resilience and turn high-risk communities into insurable ones.

Read the full blog: https://cgap.pub/4xocSD7

How can authorities advance competition for financial inclusion?

While digital innovation has intensified competition concerns in financial markets, many financial sector authorities remain unsure about how to act—either because they lack a formal competition mandate or because competition issues slip through institutional gaps.

CGAP argues that financial sector authorities can act on competition concerns using their existing mandates and regulatory toolkit. By applying a competition lens, authorities can promote competition in ways that advance financial inclusion while safeguarding stability, integrity, and consumer protection.

Drawing on country experiences from Brazil, Cambodia, India, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, we identified six practical policy considerations for authorities.

Read the full paper here: https://cgap.pub/49bzcpX

The best time to finance a disaster? Before it happens.

When Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica, the country didn't scramble for funding. It already had $662 million in prearranged financing ready to deploy.

No emergency negotiations. No drawn-down reserves. Just rapid action.

In this op-ed published by Devex , Nigel Clarke, a deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund, and Sophie Sirtaine, CEO of CGAP and World Bank Group global director for financial services, draw on Jamaica's experience to make the case that disaster preparedness must be financial as well as physical, and that the tools to get there already exist.

Read more:

The best time to finance emergency recovery is before disaster strikes Opinion: Jamaica had $662 million in prearranged financing ready when Hurricane Melissa hit. Its experience shows why disaster preparedness must be financial as well as physical.

“Better lending, not more lending” was the overriding conclusion from our recent webinar on the future of inclusive credit.

Thanks to Sophie Sirtaine, Alex Counts, and Dr Jemimah Njuki for a wide-ranging discussion on the sector’s achievements and shortcomings, the challenge of over-commercialization, and the danger of reducing the debate to whether microcredit is simply “good” or “bad.”

A few key takeaways:
✅ Credit is neither a miracle nor a failure, but a high-variance tool. Outcomes depend on who is borrowing, why they are borrowing, the terms and design of the product, how it is delivered, and the wider context in which people live and work.
✅ Credit isn’t always the answer. For low-income communities, it should be one tool within a broader ecosystem of financial services and other financial and non-financial tools.
✅ Stronger consumer protection, better incentives, and more client-centred models are all essential to the sector’s future.

Watch the full debate here: https://cgap.pub/3TshQjE