NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Last fall, executives at Bee, a mobile financial services company, were having fruitful conversations about working together with municipal agencies and other organizations serving immigrants, people of color and low-wage workers.

To hear Vinay Patel, Bee’s CEO, tell it, such partnerships would be a natural fit. Bee could get access to potential users and the agencies would be able help their constituents gain access to low-cost financial products.

Those conversations came to a screeching halt following the election of Donald Trump.

The abrupt shift harkens to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Patel said. Financial services are decidedly middle-tier, and those organizations are now focused on the more basic needs of their constituents.