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Seven Strategies to Attract 40+ Million New Customers: How U.S. banks can serve immigrants today and tomorrow
The surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S. border has put the immigration debate back in the headlines. But CFSI’s Thea Garon argues that the more important issue is whether the millions of immigrants who already live in the U.S. have what they need to succeed. She lays out new research from CFSI on how financial service providers can serve immigrants - both now and if comprehensive immigration reform is passed.
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- Investing
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Our Communities are Ours to Own: How Calvert Foundation is empowering small U.S. investors to strengthen their local cities through impact investments
Impact investing allows us to reframe the concept of “the investor” in an inclusive way that challenges all of us to invest in the future we hope to achieve, says Calvert Foundation’s Patrick Davis. Calvert’s "Ours To Own" movement embodies that goal, allowing people to invest as little as $20 to strengthen the communities they live in and love.
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- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment, Investing
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A Really Inconvenient Truth: The documentary “Spent” raises awareness of low-income Americans’ financial plight – but are banks really to blame?
To help spark a national dialogue about improving financial services, American Express sponsored the documentary "Spent: Looking for Change." Produced by the director of "An Inconvenient Truth," the film profiles struggling Americans who are ill-served by the financial industry. But it also illustrates another hard truth: our choices can impact our financial health more than our banks can.
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- Uncategorized
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NexThought Monday – The Cash Paradox: Is cash the poor’s best friend – or secret enemy?
Advocates for the poor often argue that cash is the most trustworthy payment instrument - especially for the unbanked. And a cash economy would appear to offer them advantages in inclusiveness and convenience. But as Bhaskar Chakravorti describes it, the poor also pay a heavy price for the usage of cash, both in the U.S. and in emerging economies.
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- Uncategorized
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NexThought Monday – Financial Innovation Moves Away from the Dark Side
After innovations like subprime securities helped crash the global economy in 2008, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker famously asserted that the only financial innovation that has improved society is the ATM machine. It’s an opinion that many still share - but the recent EMERGE conference showed otherwise. We explore six ways the U.S. financial industry is innovating to actually help low-income consumers.
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- Uncategorized
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Part of the Problem – or Part of the Solution?: EMERGE conference challenges financial service providers to raise their game in serving low-income Americans
Approximately 46.5 million Americans live in poverty, due in part to the 2008 economic crisis. But the industry that sparked the crash may be part of the solution, as financial service providers show increasing interest in the low-income market. In the first post in our Domestic Financial Innovation series, we explore the industry’s shifting attitudes toward bank and non-bank players.
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- Uncategorized
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EMERGE: The Forum on Consumer Financial Services Innovation: Join CFSI June 4-6 in Los Angeles
Since 2006, the Center for Financial Services Innovation and American Banker have hosted hundreds of leading players from the financial services industry at their annual forum. This year’s conference, EMERGE: The Forum on Consumer Financial Services Innovation, will be held June 4-6 in Los Angeles. It will provide opportunities to network, generate new ideas, and advance innovations in the financially underserved market.
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- Uncategorized
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Putting Microbusiness on the Map: U.S. students survey local businesses to compete for social enterprise seed funding
In the U.S., 3.7 million people remain long-term unemployed. Without job opportunities, many Americans are becoming entrepreneurial out of necessity - but they often lack capital. That’s why Lend for America is working with local students in the Philadelphia area to provide microfinance for social entrepreneurship.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment
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