Data Analytics and Digital Financial Services
This handbook, designed for financial service providers offering or intending to offer digital financial services (DFS), gives an overview of the potential that data and data analytics present for financial inclusion in terms of improving efficiency of operations and effectiveness of product development and marketing, as well as increasing outreach through innovative data-driven lending methods. It aims to provide useful guidance and support on how to apply data analytics to expand and improve the quality of financial services.
The handbook offers an overview of the basic concepts, identifies usage trends in the market, and illustrates a range of practical applications and cases of DFS providers that are translating their own or external data into business insights. It also offers a framework to guide data projects for DFS providers that wish to leverage data insights to better meet customer needs and to improve operations, services and products.
The handbook is meant as a primer on data and data analytics, and does not assume any previous knowledge of either. However, it is expected that the reader understands DFS, and is familiar with the products, the function of agents, aspects of operational management, and the role of technology. This is the third handbook on digital financial services published by IFC and The MasterCard Foundation as part of The Partnership for Financial Inclusion. The other handbooks are:
- Alternative Delivery Channels and Technology Handbook: a comprehensive guide to the components of digital financial technology with particular focus on the hardware and software building blocks for successful deployment.
- Digital Financial Services and Risk Management: a guide to the risks associated with mobile money and agent banking, and offers a framework for managing these risks.
