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
Read More1. Impact Evaluations: David McKenzie's new paper on matching grant evaluations is really about drawing lessons from not implementing research. Development Impact Blog
2. Credit Scoring: An in-depth look at products that use non-financial data to predict creditworthiness in emerging markets reviews the challenges they face and the experiences of early adopters. Omidyar Network
3. Housing Finance: A new report draws upon survey data from 48 financial institutions from around the world to sketch a picture of the current state of housing microfinance. While demand for housing finance is strong and growing, implementation challenges to offering products that work well for poor clients remain. Habitat for Humanity
Read More1. Financial Inclusion: Germany announced a new law that will make it easier for migrants to access financial services. Under the new rules, everyone will have the right to open accounts at any bank, enabling them to deposit and withdraw cash, conduct transfers, and use payment cards. But what will the implications be for anti-money laundering and KYC regulations? Reuters
2. Payday Lending: Is the future of payday lending more regulation of lenders or more regulation of banks? Federal Reserve of New York and The New York Times
3. Mobile Money: "Digital financial service providers often make the mistake of assuming that the solutions they offer exist in a vacuum. The reality is that any solution intended for the mass market will be co-opted or adapted to reflect the current behaviour and motivations for that behaviour." Microsave: Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3
Read More1. Microcredit in India: A recent review of the Indian microfinance space found MFIs are increasingly serving urban customers, albeit with better assets, at the expense of those in rural communities. Livemint
2. Incarceration and Poverty: We've discussed how the bail process is leading to increasingly high incarceration rates for the poor. But once in jail, those with child support obligations are hit with an even bigger debt burden, complicating their financial situations after they serve their sentences. The Washington Post
3. Credit Scoring: In life imitating Nineteen Eighty-Four news, China announced plans to create a mandatory "credit score" for all citizens by 2020. The score will link to national ID cards and incorporate data from social networks as well as a metric for "political compliance." CFI
Read More1. Field Experiments: In honor of Angus Deaton's Nobel prize win, FAI Managing Director Timothy Ogden released a chapter from his forthcoming book, Experimental Conversations, that includes an interview with Deaton discussing his thoughts on evidence and how we learn in economics. Medium
2. Financial Inclusion: An in-depth discussion with Mani Nandhi, who is studying the complex financial lives and decisions of rickshaw pullers in New Delhi, reveals insights that could inform the development of innovative financial products for India's poor. IMTFI
3. Urban Economic Development: According to a new report, young people ages 15-24 will make up 60% of urban residents by the year 2030. As cities struggle with absorbingpopulation growth, how can programs help to promote youth economic empowerment and employment? Making Cents International
Read More1. Microcredit: Kiva announced it will scale back Zip, its P2P lending program in Kenya, due to operational challenges. While it works on trying to crack the code of direct P2P lending in low-income environments without middlemen, Zidisha is enjoying success in doing just that. NextBillion - Zip and Zidisha
2. Mobile Money: Samsung announced a data breach of its mobile payments technology. Although the breach occurred around March, Samsung did not discover it until August and does not know if any information was taken. Incidents like this beg the question - Where are the risks in mobile payments? Payment Eye and CGAP
3. Debt Collection: An analysis of five years of debt collection lawsuit data from three metropolitan areas — St. Louis, Chicago and Newark — shows that even accounting for income, the rate of judgments was twice as high in mostly black neighborhoods as it was in mostly white ones. ProPublica
Read More1. Financial Education: A new study investigates the link between the "ABCs" of financial education (attitudes, behavior, and cognitive biases) and financial outcomes. The results report significant effects of both counseling and goal setting on real financial outcomes with no impact from "pay-for-performance" interventions. SSRN
2. Cash Transfers: Berk Özler sifts through the literature on cash transfer and graduation programs as he addresses the increasingly trendy development question – should we just give people cash? The World Bank
3. Asset Limits: Poor households face many challenges in building up savings for the long-term...and Maine just added another one. Starting November 1, individuals can only hold up to $5,000 in savings and other assets in order to receive food stamps. The Washington Post
Read More1. Retirement Savings: According to a recent survey, one in eight Americans tapped their retirement accounts over the past year to pay for unexpected emergencies, despite financial penalties and implications on long-term savings. Bankrate
2. Student Debt: PricewaterhouseCoopers announced it will assume up to $7,200 in student debt for its U.S. employees. According to one survey, only 3% of companies offer student loan repayment as a benefit. The Wall Street Journal
3. Research Methodology: An RCT conducted in Sierra Leone reports that a field researcher's race conveys subtle cues to research subjects, which could affect study outcomes — without anyone even realizing it. NY Magazine
Read More1. International Labor Mobility: FAI affiliate Michael Clemens discusses one of “the most effective development policies evaluated to date” and why it’s being ignored by major aid agencies. The Huffington Post
2. Small-Dollar Credit: Nick Bourke of The Pew Charitable Trusts suggests tweaks to the CFPB's proposed small dollar credit regulations that will allow banks to compete with payday lenders with better options for borrowers (hopefully). American Banker
3. Poverty Alleviation: "All programs have room to improve. 'Pro-poor' programs actually strive to improve toward greater effectiveness. Transparency and accountability are not just about separating wheat from chaff; they are about improving.” NextBillion
Read More1. Migration and Finance: We wanted to include a story on how refugees are financing their migration *and managing payments* but we couldn't find any. Do you know of one? Tweet it to us - @financialaccess.
2. Cash Transfers: Data from The Cash Atlas, an online platform that tracks cash transfers, suggests transfers are a growing (but still small) component of humanitarian interventions but are mostly conditional and/or mixed with in-kind transfers. Center for Global Development
3. US Financial Diaries: "Six months a year the [USFD] households we tracked had income that was either 20 percent above or below their average. So even the concept of average [income] is meaningless.” Next City
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