Staff Directory

Maria Fernandez Vidal

Senior Financial Sector Specialist

Maria Fernandez Vidal is a Senior Financial Sector Specialist and has led CGAP’s Data team since its establishment in 2020. She leads CGAP’s work on open finance and AI and was the lead author for the Key Considerations for Open Finance, a joint publication by CGAP, the BIS, the IMF, the UNSGSA’s office and the World Bank. Her work focuses on the role of data in advancing financial inclusion and financial health, covering both the public and private sectors.  She has also led work on fintech innovation, platforms and advanced analytics.

Before joining CGAP, Maria spent five years at McKinsey & Company advising financial and public sector clients on strategy, risk, operations, and organizational transformation. She previously worked at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Maria holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, with a double major in strategic management and finance, and earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella.

By Maria Fernandez Vidal

Blog

Trust and Awareness Will Be Key for Open Finance Adoption in India

India is pioneering open finance in developing economies, with 64 million accounts linked through its Account Aggregator ecosystem as of March 2024. As India continues to scale the ecosystem, early insights could help shape AA's future direction.
Research

The Building Blocks Supporting Open Finance

This working paper introduces the concept of an inclusive data ecosystem as one where low-income people’s data trails are used to improve their financial inclusion. The paper highlights open finance as a catalyst for inclusive data ecosystems and identifies key enabling layers that drive the success of open finance and, by extension, an inclusive data ecosystem.
Research

Leveraging Transactional Data for Micro and Small Enterprise Lending

The use of transactional data for credit underwriting can play a part in closing the estimated US$4.9 trillion global financing gap for micro and small enterprises. This case study examines the data and experience of two fintechs in India that use different sets of transactional data for credit scoring.
Blog

Open Finance Can Reduce Financial Inclusion Gaps: Here’s How

Open finance can be a transformational enabler to unleash the power of data to increase financial inclusion. Data-driven strategies and open finance ecosystems can revolutionize access to financial services, especially for underserved communities.
Research

Gender-Intentional Credit Scoring

Evidence shows women often demonstrate higher loan repayment rates than men, suggesting they are lower-risk borrowers yet face higher barriers to loan approval. This guide introduces a gender-lens analytical framework for lenders to determine whether lending decisions and outcomes in their portfolios differ by gender and, if so, how.