Financial Inclusion

The financial services industry has much to contribute to the UN and World Bank goal of full financial inclusion by 2020. This group will focus on industry contributions, ideas, barriers and enablers.

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Lines of Credit for the Poor: Are They Safe

Should financial institutions offer lines of credit (such as overdraft facilities) for the very poor? The question is prompted by some comments on a couple of my earlier posts, in which concern is expressed that banks have used overdraft facilities to push poorer households into overspending and overextending, resulting in significant overdraft fe...

27 May 2015 /regulation /retail

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Can Banks Really Meet the Financial Needs of the Poor?

We often talk about whether banking the poor can be profitable, as though that’s the only thing stopping banks from providing the financial services the poor need. But in reality, the bigger challenge is that standard consumer financial services simply won’t do. Even when poor households have access to formal or semi-formal financial services, the...

20 May 2015 /retail

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Financial Inclusion in a US Immigrant Community

The US Financial Diaries, which have been collected and analyzed over the past year or so by the Center for Financial Services Innovation in tandem with NYU Wagner’s Financial Access Initiative (FAI), provide some helpful insights into financial behavior, preferences and issues particularly for lower-middle class and poorer households in the US. T...

15 May 2015 /retail

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Not All Savings Are Created Equal

There is a tendency to talk about savings for the poor rather generically, as though there really is just one thing called “savings”. With credit, it is more obvious that there are short-term and long-term loans, revolving lines of credit, credit cards, secured real estate loans, etc. Too often it seems that financial institutions have a rather o...

12 May 2015 /retail

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Financial Inclusion Will Require Simplicity

Can we reach full financial inclusion in 5 years? Given the World Bank FI2020 goals, apparently our world leaders think the answer is yes. But those of us working in the commercial banking segment see all sorts of barriers to financial viability. Just what would it take? A set of financial products that actually meet the needs of the poor and ver...

06 May 2015

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Financial Services for the Very Poor - Demand Must Drive Supply

With the current huge focus on Financial Inclusion at the global level and in an increasing number of governments, as well as rapid developments in technology, opportunities to provide financial services to the world’s poorest people abound. In many countries, access to bank accounts has increased rapidly. However, usage of these accounts has gene...

28 April 2015 /retail

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Balancing Risk and Access in Financial Inclusion

or Spare a Thought for the Poor Can’t-Win Regulators. Regulators are about as popular among Financial Inclusion enthusiasts as a football (soccer) referee. Referees get credit for slowing the pace of the game, blinking and missing a bad tackle, misjudging offside (after all we have a much better view, don’t we?), and being out-and-out spoilsports....

23 April 2015 /regulation