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.
Read MoreIn this webinar, we’ll introduce The Small Firm Diaries USA—a new research initiative examining the daily financial realities, challenges, and resilience strategies of small firm owners and their workers. Through a discussion with expert panelists, we’ll explore how the shifting U.S. business landscape—from policy changes to economic pressures—is affecting the smallest employer firms in low-income areas.
Read MoreCo-hosted by the Financial Access Initiative (FAI) at NYU and FinDev Gateway, this faiVLive webinar will continue exploring the present and future of microfinance in development policy and practice. Join leaders from all parts of the microfinance sector as they discuss pressing questions for funders, practitioners, policymakers and others.
Read MoreIn this webinar coming up on March 27 at 10am EDT we’ll share some data and key findings from the Small Firm Diaries. We’ll talk about related research and initiatives from around the world. And we’ll discuss the implications for what’s next on the agenda. Don’t miss this chance to join in a live discussion of findings from this first-of-its kind research study.
Read MoreTwo years ago we hosted a faiVLive on “the gathering storm” of the pandemic and the crisis it presented for low-income households and the MFI industry. It’s clear now the industry has endured the storm better than many (or at least Tim) expected.
Read MoreThere’s no question that there are big gaps in financial literacy between the rich and poor, and between those included and excluded at every income level and in every country. As digital finance becomes more important, the gap grows and takes on added dimensions. No wonder that financial (and now digital) literacy programs attract attention and millions of dollars globally.
Read MoreBack for a second run, Tim Ogden and Jesse McWaters of Mastercard continued their conversation on digital money, and grappled with questions focused on applications of digital currency to advance financial inclusion, cybersecurity, and the interplay between regulation, consumer protection and innovation.
Read MoreIn this edition of the faiVLive, the Financial Access Initiative’s Tim Ogden and Jesse McWaters, the Global Head of Regulatory Advocacy at Mastercard, explored basic frameworks for understanding the differences between the rapidly growing types of digital currencies. They covered new and evolving digital means of exchange, how they interact, and what that means for pro-poor financial inclusion.
Read MoreIn 2009, FAI founder Jonathan Morduch was part of a group that determined “half the world is unbanked.” Ten years later, the latest Global Findex tells us that the world’s unbanked population has been nearly cut in half. A combination of focused public and private efforts, aided by technology advances, yielded massive, though uneven, progress. It’s worth celebrating the gains, but also reflecting on what is still left to do. What lessons have we learned from the last 20 years that can close the rest of the inclusion gap? Why has inclusion in wealthier countries stalled? What does the inclusion agenda leave undone? How can technology be part of building more bridges to excluded communities?
This edition of the faiVLive was based on a new report from the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program, Building An Inclusive Financial System, that tackles those questions and more.
Read MoreIn this edition of the faiVLive, with a group of expert panelists from around the world, we delve into the possibilities for FinTech to serve the poor and reduce inequality. Six years after McKinsey heralded “a new era of digital globalization,” what have we learned about when, and where, FinTech meaningfully advances inclusion, and when it creates a new (digital) divide? When does FinTech (in the words of Greg Chen of CGAP, during this edition of the faiVLive) build a bridge and when does it dig a moat?
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