Week of October 5, 2015

1. 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

4. Global Poverty Rates:  If you haven't seen coverage of the World Bank's announcement of the drop in worldwide extreme poverty, then you're reading the wrong newsletter. Vox, Center for Global Development, Our World In Data, Deutsche Welle, and The World Bank

5. Fun with Data: This week saw a proliferation of interesting (but educational!) interactive graphics on topics ranging from the minimum wage in the 50 states, mapping NYC's unbanked, and historical GDP comparisons from around the world. EPI, Urban Institute, and Vox