Despite evidence that reducing the cost of mobile money and other services is key to improving financial inclusion, and that transparent pricing is a key feature of well-functioning markets, little has been done to systematically monitor the true cost of conducting digital financial service (DFS) transactions or the ease of accessing information about fees. IPA's Transaction Cost Index (TCI) conducted a two-year study in Bangladesh, Tanzania, and Uganda focused on three main areas: price transparency, monetary costs, and reliability. The six country briefs on this page provide an overview of the findings from each year in each country.

Year One:

• Brief: Measuring the True Cost of Digital Financial Services in Bangladesh
• Brief: Measuring the True Cost of Digital Financial Services in Tanzania
• Brief: Measuring the True Cost of Digital Financial Services in Uganda

Year Two:

• Brief: Measuring the True Cost of Digital Financial Services in Bangladesh
• Brief: Measuring the True Cost of Digital Financial Services in Tanzania
• Brief: Measuring the True Cost of Digital Financial Services in Uganda

In the first year of fieldwork, we piloted three different methods of data collection. The second year concentrated on a refined version of the best performing method, mystery shopping by local consumers, according to our metrics on affordability, adaptability, data quality, and observer effects.