Increasingly powerful AI tools are enabling malicious actors to target financial services systems and institutions the world over. Recently the IMF found cyber-enabled fraud has nearly tripled with losses falling hardest on developing countries. And that was before a new generation of AI models powerful enough to spur an emergency meeting between the US Federal Reserve and the CEOs of the largest banks in the world. These emerging threats are in no way confined to large multinational banks however. AI lowers the costs of cyberattacks, increasing the number of organizations at risk including CDFIs in the US, MFIs around the world, mobile money systems and fintechs focused on lower-income customers.

Since the launch of the Small Firm Diaries USA, our research team has been busy collecting data from more than 80 small firms, and we’re excited to share what we’re learning so far. By following firms in low-income communities over time, the research takes an unusually close look at the financial lives of small businesses to surface how business owners manage volatility, respond to shocks, and make decisions that shape their businesses and their workers.

Join us for an inside look into our early findings and discussion on what they may mean for policy, practice, and efforts to better support small firms and workers.

Editor’s Note: I hadn’t appreciated the role that normalcy plays in allowing me to be sarcastic and jokey about the various topics I write about, until, well, everything stopped being normal. Please allow me some grace as I try to find a tone that is appropriately direct and honest, and still tries to find some humor in these dark days. - Tim

Editors’ Note: Hi, it’s Laura and Jonathan again. As a reminder, we’re taking the wheel here every other edition and Tim will be back with you in a couple weeks. One question kept surfacing as we assembled this edition. Emergency savings advice built for stable households, child savings accounts that work best for families who already have 529s, and jobs policy that still imagines a mid-20th century labor market—Who are these systems designed for, really? - Laura Freschi and Jonathan Morduch

Editors’ Note:  This was an unusually difficult to organize and write faiV for two reasons--it feels like everything is some combination of AI and politics, and the new things just kept coming so fast, shifting how I was thinking about and grouping items, which is an item in itself. It’s going to get messy from here. If you’re nostalgic for a simpler world, and you happen to be near Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, New York or St. Louis, you should join us for one of our Small Firm Diaries-USA mid-point events in the next few weeks.- Tim

Editors’ Note:The reborn faiV newsletter is on an every-two-week schedule. Tim Ogden wrote it for years, and it’s been Tim’s baby. But we’re here to provide another set of voices. Don’t worry, Tim will be back in 2 weeks.  About us: Laura is FAI’s Deputy Director and, as she writes below, spent years writing and analyzing foreign aid policy. She now lives with her family in northern Italy. Jonathan teaches at NYU and used to write about finance as it connects to poverty. These days, he’s mainly writing about poverty as it connects to finance. - Laura Freschi and Jonathan Morduch

Editor's Note: It’s a new year and a new faiV. I’ll try not to dwell on what precedes that famous line, nor will I spend a lot of time on explanations or apologies. I will note that the gap between this faiV and the last one is 30% smaller than the previous hiatus. But I figured there was limited time to write a few more faiVs before being replaced by Claude Code. The plan for this part of the cycle is to go to twice monthly, with me (Tim) writing once per month and Jonathan and Laura handling the other one. Also of note, we will be shifting away from Mailchimp imminently so stay tuned for details on shifting your “subscription.”
- Tim Ogden