Antonique Koning

Senior Financial Sector Specialist

Antonique Koning leads CGAP’s work on Women’s Economic Empowerment through financial inclusion and manages the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) convened by CGAP. She has more than 25 years of experience working on inclusive finance and has expertise in gender norms affecting women’s financial inclusion, young women’s financial inclusion, responsible finance and customer centricity.  Antonique also led CGAP’s work on customer outcomes-based approaches to consumer protection regulation and supervision, and  contributed to guidance on customer empowerment and employee and agent empowerment for CGAP’s Customer Centric Guide for which she authored a case study on Pioneer Microinsurance.  

Before joining CGAP in 2004, Antonique gained hands-on experience developing and implementing microcredit programs in El Salvador and working with savings banks globally. 

She has a Master’s degree in International Trade Management and Policy from the University of Birmingham, and a Master’s degree in Applied Economics from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Antonique is based in Belgium, and speaks Spanish, French, and Dutch.

By Antonique Koning

Blog

No Inclusion Without Customer Empowerment

Customer research and work with financial services providers across Africa and Asia show that customers are looking for four things when they engage with finance: choice, respect, voice and control.
Research

Customer Empowerment in Finance

Financial services providers for low-income customers typically believe that their business case is based on expanding the number of accounts or the number of transactions made by these customers. This is only part of the equation to business success.
Research

Customer Empowerment through Gamification

Absa, a large retail bank in South Africa, introduced gamification as part of a broader strategy to increase customer understanding and awareness of digital products and channels on offer.
Blog

Let's Gamify to Empower the Customer!

By improving user experience, engagement, and loyalty, "gamified" financial services apps may have a role in increasing usage by low-income customers
Research

How the Poor Manage Their Money

This brochure highlights four money management practices of low-income people - and why it matters to financial service providers.