From access to credit to secure savings accounts – how can financial institutions realize transformative potential for those historically excluded from financial systems?
Recent initiatives have focused on ensuring poor citizens have access to formal financial institutions, but in many ways, these innovations have failed to have the transformative impacts they were once thought to guarantee. What financial inclusion initiatives enable the poor not simply to gain access to a bank account, but also to use them to improve their economic circumstances? And how should these programs – whether microfinance, digital cash transfers, or others – be designed to protect and empower traditionally marginalized groups? Our research aims to identify how financial inclusion can work for the poor, and design innovations that support the marginalized, particularly women.
