The wide reach of digital financial services, such as digital savings, credit, payments, insurance or investment products, can unlock life-changing opportunities for low-income consumers by helping them save, borrow, and receive remittances. But here’s a little secret about the seemingly endless array of these digital services: their current ability to attract and serve new users largely depends on the expansion of old-fashioned physical interaction through agent networks.

These networks enable users to deposit or withdraw cash from digital accounts, which is crucial in cash economies where digital finance has limited use cases. Expanding these networks beyond large cities is notoriously difficult, but significant progress has been made in recent years — and in surprising ways.

In this episode, we explore the latest advances in agent networks and what they mean for the future of inclusive finance.

Featured Voices:

· Emilio Hernandez, Senior Financial Sector Specialist, CGAP

· Sasidhar Thumuluri, Managing Director and CEO, Sub-K

· Archana Pandey, General Manager, Financial Inclusion at Bank of Baroda

· Sandhya Rani, Sub-K rural agent

Special thanks to Anand Raman, CGAP consultant based in India, for his help in leading interviews with Sub-K agents and customers.