1. Retail Banking: Banks may continue to go digital but this doesn’t mean the brick and mortar branch is disappearing. Customers who use mobile and online banking more than once a week are over 60% more likely to be active retail-branch users than those who do not. McKinsey&Company
2. Labor Trends: The increasingly common practice of scheduling workers' shifts just before they begin can wreak havoc on the financial and personal lives of many low-wage workers, leading to income volatility and difficulty in arranging childcare. Al Jazeera America
3. Banking Transparency: "Low-income consumers want to know not just what the prices are, but in some ways, how banks’ decisions are made. Banks’ failure to communicate a rationale makes clients feel cheated...Clients who feel cheated, often feel justified in 'cheating back.'" Center for Financial Inclusion
Read More1. Language of Money: The nuances of financial jargon provide clarity in conversation, but exclude many. The New Yorker
2. Biometric Identification: Many countries, including India and Nigeria, continue to roll out biometric identity cards which can improve access to financial services. Alliance for Financial Inclusion
3. Islamic Microfinance: How can Sharia-compliant microfinance help bring financial tools to the 650 million Muslims living on less than $2 a day? The World Bank
Read More1. Microcredit: Easing liquidity constraints of smallholder farmers during the hungry season may help break the cycle of inadequate crop yields and low-wage off-labor farm work by helping to smooth consumption (with the added bonus of raising local wages!). Jobs Knowledge Platform
2. African Financial Markets: African banks continue to expand their regional footprints, which creates an interesting policy balancing act - how to reap the benefits of financial integration while protecting systems against "cross-border contagion and fragility." The World Bank: All About Finance Blog
3. Income Distributions: Africa’s middle class doubled in the last 30 years - but the poor and rich classes grew as well, so income distributions have gone largely unchanged. The New York Times
Read More1. Psychology and Poverty: An increasing number of scholars are studying how poverty affects the way people feel, think, and act. This may mean more widespread use of stress and happiness as metrics of success for development programs. Foreign Affairs
2. Microfinance: Despite the growing complexity of the microfinance industry, the most pressing risk it faces remains the same - overindebtedness. CFI
3. Poverty in the US: A few members of Congress participate in a simulation of lives of poor households. None of them stick around until the end. The Washington Post
Read More1. M-Pesa: All 85,000 M-Pesa agents are now free to sell rival services after a long battle for open networks comes to an end. IT Web Africa
2. Remittances: Tougher regulation intended to fight illicit use of international money transfers shutters low-cost remittance services for migrants and raises the cost of sending money home. The New York Times
3. Mobile Money: Global smartphone penetration is expected to double by 2017, leading to faster new product development and more competition in the mobile money industry… GSMA
Read More1. Microfinance: New evidence from Morocco is the latest addition to the debate on whether microcredit can raise income and reduce poverty. The Economist
2. Credit: Arguing about fees in the small-dollar credit market distracts from more productive debates for providers and consumers. American Banker
3. Research Methodology: Creative approaches to qualitative research - balancing survey questions with "deep hanging out." Chris Blattman
Read More1. Financial Services: An audit study of financial institutions in peri-urban Mexico found staff voluntarily provides little information about avoidable fees and clients are almost never offered the cheapest product. The World Bank
2. US Income Inequality: "'Economic despair' provides a decisive blow to the nation’s mythical identity as the land of opportunity: for many children at the bottom, it suggests, opportunity is not just out of reach. It is inconceivable." The New York Times
3. Digital Payments: 10 days in Kenya. No cash. 1 mobile phone. Business Week
Read More1. Financial Inclusion: As part EMERGE: The Forum on Consumer Financial Service Innovation, attendees got a taste of what it is like (including how expensive it is) to be unbanked. American Banker
2. Student Debt: Despite the fact that student debt in the US passed the $1 trillion mark, new research from the NY Fed shows many borrowers are not aware of what happens if they default. Liberty Street Economics
3. Financial Services: Google created a new service that searches Gmail accounts for correspondence from creditors then sends a reminder when a bill is due with the amount owed. PYMNTS.com
Read More1. Cash Transfers: Opponents of cash transfers argue the poor waste their funds on alcohol and tobacco. But a review of 44 estimates of consumption across 19 studies and 13 interventions does not show evidence of increased spending on these goods. The World Bank - Development Impact Blog
2. Mobile Banking: Sometimes mobile banking is a little too helpful. The New Yorker
3. Financial Access: The bank branch may make a comeback after all - new research on issues relating to financial access among communities of color shows individuals surveyed greatly preferred to bank in person rather than use online services, even if they owned a smartphone. National Council of La Raza
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