Areas Asia and the Pacific

In China, wages paid in digital fiat may boost use cases

This post discusses the introduction of the digitial yuan as a means of wage payment in China.

From cash to digital wage payments: A win-win for enterprises and women workers in the Philippines

The ILO and Women’s World Banking, along with the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade hosted a webinar on digital wage payments given its potential to empower workers, particularly women workers, by increasing their control over their wages…

HERfinance audio files

HERproject has developed audio messages that provide information about using financial services and money management, which can be played on the public address (PA) system.

Factory wage digitisation trend in RMG sector steps backward

This news item highlights the trend of reverting back to cash wages among factories in the readymade garment industry in Bangladesh and presents possible explanation based on recent research.

Factory wage digitization trends

This blog post describes the evolution of digital wage payments in factories spread across Bangladesh’s five main industrial areas (Chittagong, Dhaka City, Gazipur, Narayanganj, and Savar). The findings are based on monthly phone interviews conducted between April and October 2020…

Learning to navigate a new financial technology: Evidence from payroll accounts

How do inexperienced consumers learn to use a new financial technology? This paper presents results from a field experiment that introduced payroll accounts in a population of largely unbanked factory workers in Bangladesh. In the experiment, workers in a treatment…

Utilizing technology to increase women’s financial capability and ensure gender-inclusive digital finance in the global supply chain

This post discusses the use of tech learning tools to support workers, especially women, transition to digital wages and help them to access, use, and ultimately benefit from their new payroll accounts.

BGMEA’s response to Daily Star editorial and SANEM report

The editorial published by The Daily Star with the headline “Financial hardship of RMG workers” mentioned that the RMG workers’ appears to be an inaccurate interpretation of the original study report by SANEM / MFO which is seriously misleading. Though…

Financial hardship of RMG workers have increased

This news item discusses emerging challenges to workers in the readymade garment industry in Bangladesh in the period leading to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Towards inclusive digital finance in Indonesia

This report reviews existing evidence on the impact of digital financial services and associated policies on development outcomes, provides an overview of the Indonesian context, and identifies promising areas for future research and policy innovation.