The Final Countdown: Where are MetLife’s Financial Inclusion Grants Landing?

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

In 2013, the MetLife Foundation made a $200 million commitment over five years to move global financial inclusion forward. The foundation, along with its partners launched projects around the world beginning with low-income communities in Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the United States. Since then, MetLife has moved quite a bit of money fairly quickly out of the program and has disbursed over $100 million so far.

Where’s the rest of the money likely to end up? One hint may lie in a recent grant which aims to scale up innovation in the financial services industry so it can better reach financially underserved and unbanked populations.

The MetLife Foundation recently announced that it is providing close to $400,000 over two years to support the Mainstreaming Financial Inclusion: Best Practices project. The project is a joint effort between the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion (CFI), the Institute of International Finance (IIF), and the MetLife Foundation. It will build on the findings from a previous study conducted by CFI and IIF and will dive into some key challenges to serving low-income populations and those at the base of the economic pyramid.

To begin, the project will partner with more financial tech startups, extend insurance coverage, continue to build the financial capabilities of low-income populations, and improve banking models. CFI and IIF will also lead workshops with mainstream financial institutions to publish the project’s findings.

Source: Inside Philanthropy (link opens in a new window)

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Base of the Pyramid, financial inclusion