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

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Innovations for Poverty Action announced today the beginning of a partnership with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to translate research around the world into practical insights for financial service providers engaged with underserved consumers in the U.S. and Europe. This work will be conducted in close partnership with MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL).

“We are thrilled to announce this new partnership with JPMorgan Chase & Co.,” said Beniamino Savonitto, Director of the Financial Inclusion Program at IPA. “This grant offers us a unique opportunity to amplify our efforts to share insights from our research spanning over 30 countries and work with financial institutions to test and scale promising strategies to foster financial inclusion.”

For more than a decade, IPA, J-PAL, and their affiliated researchers have been studying ways to improve and optimize financial products and services to bolster the financial health of low-income consumers. While still in development, this body of research has yielded a substantial number of insights with potential for both industry and policy.

“We will be using the latest insights in consumer behavior and finance to help service providers develop innovative products that better serve low-income consumers,” said Savonitto.

The new partnership with JPMorgan Chase will focus on translating evidence into actionable steps that financial service providers can take to better meet the needs of their clients. Specifically, the $100,000 grant will allow IPA and J-PAL to publish a series of issue briefs and articles, as well as work directly with financial service providers and other interested parties to help them identify and apply insights from research to their products and operations.

“IPA is excited about this opportunity to increase the depth and breadth of the impact of its research, and is grateful to JPMorgan Chase & Co. for supporting this important work,” said Annie Duflo, Executive Director of Innovations for Poverty Action.