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Aspen Institute Launches Intense Investigations Into Emerging Threats to the Financial Security of American Families
The Aspen Institute today launched an ambitious, first-of-its-kind project to shine light on economic forces that severely impact the financial security of American families. The Expanding Prosperity Impact Collaborative (EPIC) is an unparalleled effort to identify consumer finance issues that have widespread, mainstream import but are unexplored relative to their consequences for millions of Americans. EPIC will connect diverse, multi-sector teams of experts to deeply analyze the current state of knowledge on these vital issues and deliver a fresh framework upon which policymakers and industry leaders can build evidence-based solutions. EPIC will raise the profile of misunderstood and overlooked economic challenges and bring unconventional insights to thought leaders and decision-makers.
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Viewpoint: The Challenges of Mobile Financial Inclusion
One of the gating factors to financial inclusion is the mobile network itself. It sounds simple to say that all of Africa can have access to mobile money, and they can, but if each telco has different wallet structures, charges and fees, then the ease of usage falls sharply. This is why interoperability is a key factor and Tanzania leads the way in this regard.
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- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: It’s Time to Green Our Financial Deserts
Since 2010, more than 5,000 bank branches have closed in communities across the United States. Meanwhile, expensive alternative financial service providers like check cashers and payday lenders continued to proliferate at an alarming rate. Not surprisingly, these two trends have disproportionately impacted hard-working people of color, trapping roughly 9 million African-American families in a world where it costs more to have less.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Secret Sauce in Shared Value, Lean Startup, Behavioral Economics and Social Enterprise
As an enthusiast for new solutions to old problems I wonder: Are you as excited as I am by relatively recent developments of social enterprises, shared value, behavioral economics and/or lean startups for social change? Or do you skeptically forecast which of these business approaches might just be fads?
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- Social Enterprise
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An Ecosystem Approach for Building Affordable, Climate Resilient Housing
Indonesia has seen some of the worst natural calamities in recent times, and its demand for houses exceeds an estimated 1 million, with a supply between 300,000 - 400,000 annually. This highlights a business opportunity for private firms in the country’s affordable housing sector. As a part of the Rockefeller Foundation Technical Assistance Facility, Intellecap worked with Lafarge in Medan and Aceh, Indonesia to create a climate-resilient housing product model that is sustainable and caters to the urban poor.
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- Environment
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Innovations in Financial Capability: Four Lessons For Providers
Building successful financial capability requires moving beyond traditional modes of product delivery and financial education. Accion identified several best practices from organizations that habitually learn from their clients’ needs and behaviors, and tailor their products to meet those needs and build capability. Here are four lessons from their new report on the topic.
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Vodacom pulls plug on mobile money service M-Pesa in South Africa
May 9 Vodacom will discontinue its mobile money service M-Pesa in South Africa after it failed to attract enough support in its slow-growing home market, the telecommunications firm said on Monday.
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- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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India’s MobiKwik Raises $50M for Its Mobile Wallet Service
The increase of smartphone ownership in India is fueling the rise of mobile wallets in the country. One company leading the charge, MobiKwik, has topped up its own funds with a $50 million Series C round announced today.
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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