Financial Access Initiative


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Impact through Research

Reimagining Financial Access

Innovation requires attention to the psychology and broad needs of low-income families to create the next generation of financial solutions.

Mechanisms Matter

Details of savings, credit and insurance products can determine their success and failure—sometimes in surprising ways.

Measuring Impact

Evidence on how financial access affects households. The strengths and limitations of randomized control trials.

Investment and Regulation

Innovation requires understanding tradeoffs in commercialization, price-setting, prudential regulation and efforts to protect the poor.

Members

Featured Research

Health Insurance and Quality of Care in India

Examining how participation in a health insurance scheme affects the quality of care accessed by individuals.

What's New

Microfinance Groups Think Big

Wall Street Journal - July 2010

Microfinance programs have become major sources of lending in developing countries. According to the Aspen Institute, the industry lent out $68 million in 2008, a tiny fraction of the U.S. credit market. Jonathan Morduch weighs in on the challenges small scale entrepreneurs face here at home.
Join us for a virtual conference on Reimagining Microfinance Around the World

May 2010

MicroSave and the Financial Access Initiative invite you to join the authors of Portfolios of the Poor for a two-day virtual conference to discuss how to turn lessons from the financial diaries into real, on-the-ground solutions for improving the lives of the poor. This event will be moderated by co-authors Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven, and MicroSave’s Graham A.N. Wright.

To join the virtual conference, please click here.
Free money Here’s an idea for foreign aid: Just hand over the cash

The Boston Globe - July 2010

Jonathan Morduch tells the Boston Globe: “By and large [the poor] are doing smart things with their money, they’re thinking hard about how to best spend it, whether, for example, to keep a kid in school or put the money into their business, that sort of thing,”. Read the full article here.
Esther Duflo profile in The New Yorker

The New Yorker - May 2010

Take a sneak peek--The New Yorker profiles Esther Duflo in its May 17th edition. (Full text for subscribers only.)

Microfinance Club of New York Event-Microfinance's Social Impact: Cutting Through the Hype

Location: Puck Building 295 Lafayette Street, 2nd Floor Rudin Family Forum New York City 10012 New York United States

Date: July 21, 2010

This event took place on July 21. View Jonathan Morduch's Microfinance Impacts presentation slides from the event here.

Microfinance's Social Impact: Cutting Through the Hype
A number of recent randomized control trial studies have questioned long-held beliefs about the impact of microfinance on poverty. The findings have generated controversy and some misinterpretation among practitioners and the media. The research has raised questions about what microfinance's role is or should be in strateges for economic development. Portfolios of the Poor co-author Jonathan Morduch is joined by a panel of researchers and experts to discuss what the data really means, its strengths, weaknesses and its implications for the microfinance industry as a whole.
Microinsurance Summit 2010 - Designing innovative and scalable delivery channels for long-term growth

Location: Miami

Date: May 26, 2010 - May 27, 2010

The conference brings together stakeholders from the microinsurance industry to discuss important challenges of scale and distribution that are currently facing the microinsurance sector. More information on the event can be found here.
University of Scranton Henry George Lecture: Social Investment: New possibilities for business and philanthropy

Location: Pearn Auditorium (Room 228) Brennan Hall 320 Madison Avenue Scranton, PA 18510

Date: May 6, 2010

“Social Investment: New possibilities for business and philanthropy” will be the topic of The University of Scranton’s spring Henry George Lecture by Jonathan Morduch, Ph.D., professor of public policy and economics at the New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. The May 6 lecture will begin at 4 p.m. in the Pearn Auditorium of Brennan Hall. It is free of charge and open to the public.

The co-author of Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day and The Economics of Microfinance, Dr. Morduch’s current research focuses on microfinance, social investment and the economics of poverty. He also serves as managing director and lead researcher for the Financial Access Initiative, which is a consortium of development economists focused on financial inclusion.

Dr. Morduch earned a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a doctorate in economics from Harvard University. Previously, he served as a member of the economics faculty at Harvard University and has held visiting faculty positions at Stanford University, Princeton University and the University of Tokyo.

The annual spring Henry George program is sponsored by the Economics and Finance Department at The University of Scranton and the Xi chapter of the International Economics Honor Society. Henry George was a 19th-century American economist and social reformer with a special interest in justice issues.

For additional information about the Henry George program, call The University of Scranton at 941-4048.

Event details
Date: May 6
Time: 4 p.m.
Location: Pearn Auditorium (Room 228) of Brennan Hall (Link to map here)
Brennan Hall
320 Madison Avenue
Scranton, PA 18

It is free of charge and open to the public.

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Blog

August 31, 2010

Eight causes of a crash: What happened to Banex?

This is the second of two guest posts by Barbara Magnoni, President of EA Consultants, on what we can learn from Banex and its demise. Banex had been one of the most prominent microfinance institutions in Nicaragua, but as it pushed forward with an aggressive growth strategy, its foundations proved weak. In early August 2010, Banex (formerly Findesa) entered liquidation. Magnoni gives starting points for understanding how the bubble burst.

August 26, 2010

A blog on the Unitus controversy you won’t want to miss

The SKS IPO is a microfinance milestone: the first IPO of an Indian microlender – an event big enough to be covered by the international media. When the first IPO happened in Mexico in 2008, Banco Compartamos was attacked for its high interest rates and (arguably) excessive profit rates, with Muhammad Yunus leading the charge.

August 25, 2010

Bubble Bubble Banex Trouble

Two very different events hit the microfinance world this summer. In India, the SKS IPO sparked debates about the lines between profit-making and social responsibility when investors profess a “double bottom line.” In Nicaragua, the failure of Banex is an event that may have even wider reverberations.

Background

The Financial Access Initiative (FAI) is a consortium of researchers at NYU, Yale, Harvard and IPA focused on finding answers to how financial sectors can better meet the needs of poor households.

Financial access holds the promise to help low-income individuals in developing countries manage their economic lives and build wealth. The Initiative aims to provide rigorous research on the impacts of financial access and on innovative ways to improve access.

The Initiative was launched with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and American International Group, Inc. to the NYU Wagner Graduate School. Research by FAI researchers is also supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, The World Bank, CGAP, and other organizations.