Week of November 9, 2015 — Financial Access Initiative

1. Financial Inclusion: A new report explores the "economic factors driving financial products and why the status quo fails to meet the financial needs of lower-income consumers." ideas42 and Oliver Wyman

2. Development Research: David Evans puts us to shame by providing summaries of over 150 papers from the 2015 NEUDC, all in handy tweetable formats. Development Impact Blog

3. Student Debt: Are private investors the answer to rising student debt or just an oversimplified "solution" to a very complex problem? Urban Institute

4. Mobile Money: Although Latin Americans represent a small portion of worldwide mobile money users, they are some of the most active. Currently, 37 mobile money servicesare operational in 19 countries in the region. Financial Times (paywall)

5. Assets and Savings: A new coalition of labor advocates, tech start-ups, and venture capitalists are calling for better ways for freelance workers to access benefits that typically have been provided through employers (such as health care and unemployment insurance). The New York Times

August 13, 2026

Financial Access Initiative

The Massive DDoS Edition

Editor's Note:

If you were hoping that the faiV would be a pleasant distraction from the overwhelming flow of AI-related content, sorry. For the record, the faiV had “ai” built in before Anthropic existed. And a housekeeping note: we’ve finally jumped ship from Mailchimp to NYU’s mailing platform—I guess if you’re reading this it’s been a seamless transition and if you’re not, well, you’re not. Feedback on the faiV’s content and format and delivery methods is always welcome, just drop me an email.

- Tim Ogden

July 1, 2026

The Same As It Ever Was Edition

Editors’ Note: Hi, Laura and Jonathan here. A few of the pieces this week come from people who spent years up close with how poor households actually handle money, and keep coming back with something more tangled than the story usually told, and more persistent. Tim will be back for the next edition. - Laura Freschi and Jonathan Morduch

June 26, 2026

Laura Freschi and Timothy Ogden

Financial inclusion’s efficiency is now exposure: Four notes from the faiVLive webinar on emerging AI cyberthreats

The idea for this conversation was born from alarm. At the news that the US Treasury Secretary and the Chair of the Federal Reserve had called a meeting with the CEOs of the twenty largest banks in America to talk about threats to the financial system from emerging frontier AI models, Tim had questions: what about the community banks, the credit unions, and the CDFIs—the financial institutions that serve low-income communities and small businesses in America? When will they be invited to the meetings on how to defend their systems against AIs that can exploit software vulnerabilities with unprecedented ease and speed? And globally, are the regulators in middle-income and developing countries also holding meetings to discuss how they can defend against these threats? Will those meetings include anyone beyond the largest banks?

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