Week of May 25, 2015

1. Mobile Money: Will a handful of high-profile fraud cases damage mobile money? It depends on how fast operators can adapt 21st century security and authentication systems to protect customers and retain their trust. NextBillion

2. Retirement Savings: For the 53 million public pension participants in Mexico, making a contribution to a retirement account is now as easy as buying a pack of gum or a lottery ticket (well, except for the delayed gratification). CFI

3. Microcredit: Is there a tradeoff in using digital products to serve microcredit clients and maintaining a strong client relationship built on trust or is it possible to have it all? SEEP Network

4. Big Data: The Big Data revolution might be driving many new technological innovations, but "small data" (qualitative, contextual information) may actually help us be more effective at making big decisions. The New York Times

5. Financial Inclusion: The US can learn and apply many of the lessons from around the world to decrease its unbanked population. TechCrunch

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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