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Press release: Common Cents Report: Hacking Human Behavior to Improve Financial Health
Common Cents, a financial research lab at Duke University supported by MetLife Foundation, today unveiled its 2017 Annual Report. The report details behavioral interventions aimed at improving financial health for low- to moderate-income people with more than 27 organizations over the course of 2017, including startups, credit unions, non-profits, and local governments.
- Region
- North America
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Press release: Financial Solutions Lab Launches $3 Million Year-Four Competition to Support the Financial Health of Underrepresented Communities
Given the diversity of Americans who struggle with financial health, in this year’s Challenge, the Lab is particularly interested in products developed by entrepreneurs of color, women and people with disabilities, and designed to meet the financial needs of often overlooked populations.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- North America
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Deciphering the Data Deluge: Making Data More Useful for Financial Inclusion
Data can have a transformative impact on financial inclusion efforts. But it will reach its full potential only if industry stakeholders can truly understand and utilize it for the benefit of customers. In this Q&A, Camilla Nestor, CEO of MIX, discusses how MIX's FINClusion Lab is making data available to financial services providers, regulators, policymakers and others in a format they can actually use.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Super Platforms in Africa: Not if, but When
Imagine low-income, rural entrepreneurs throughout Africa actively leveraging super platforms like Facebook and Alibaba to conduct all their business interactions, from customer payments to orders from suppliers. This scenario isn't that far-fetched, says BFA's Yanina Seltzer. She explains why the march of the super platforms into Africa is inevitable – and what it will mean for financial services providers, regulators, and small and medium enterprises.
- Categories
- Finance, Investing, Technology
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Airbnb is Just the Beginning: The Sharing Economy Comes to Emerging Markets
The "sharing economy" is a buzzworthy new industry with platform provider revenues of $18.6 billion – a number that’s predicted to double by 2022 – and a user base that's expected to increase to 86.5 million by 2021. But what is its potential impact on emerging markets? NextBillion spoke with Airbnb's Shawn Sullivan and sharing economy expert April Rinne about how the nascent industry could impact low-income communities – including through an intriguing variation on Airbnb's home-sharing model.
- Categories
- Technology
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Microenterprise graduation leads to higher consumption, asset ownership
“Helping the ultra-poor escape extreme poverty is a global priority, but policymakers are faced with competing ideas about the best way to accomplish this,” said Village Enterprise’s CEO Dianne Calvi.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Finance Responds to Climate Change: How ‘Recovery Lending’ Can Help Victims of Weather-Related Disasters
Natural disasters leave U.S. communities reeling – but those impacted generally have an insurance safety net. When climate-related catastrophes strike poorer populations, it is almost impossible to recover fully. In fact, every year natural disasters force 26 million people further into poverty. Stewart McCulloch of VisionFund International details a novel disaster insurance program that leverages big data climate models to support nearly 700,000 families with "recovery lending."
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment
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Why Impact Investing is the Next Big Move for Grameen America
David Gough of Grameen America says philanthropy will always be at the heart of the organization's funding, but the nonprofit saw impact investing as an untapped opportunity to fight gender inequity. In celebrating its 10-year anniversary of supporting female entrepreneurship and financial inclusion in the U.S., the group established its first Social Business Fund. The impact investing vehicle is allowing Grameen America supporters to directly invest in the success of more than 100,000 entrepreneurs and receive a financial return in exchange, writes Gough.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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