1. Savings Groups: In an evaluation of savings group outreach programs in Kenya, NGO-led groups had better attendance rates, saved more, had larger payouts, and lower rates of reported loss than groups formed spontaneously. FSD Kenya
2. Mobile Money: Kenya may be the current media darling when it comes to mobile money, but Tanzania's success story is due for its share of the spotlight. CGAP
3. Poverty in the US: "Our economy increasingly requires that people be flexible in the workplace, understand more complex processes, and communicate and work well with others. As consumers, many people living in poverty aren’t prepared to manage all the choice and temptations in the marketplace, such as mortgages, auto loans, and cell-phone plans." Stanford Social Innovation Review
4. Sharing Economy: Will low-income consumers benefit most from new peer-to-peer rental marketplaces or will they face barriers to growth and prosperity as microentrepreneurs? The Washington Post
5. Payments: Facebook announced it is adding a payments feature to its messenger app that allows American users to link their debit cards to the service and send money as easily as sending text. The New York Times
Week of March 9, 2015
1. Peer Lending: A new study reports lenders in online peer-to-peer lending models were able to predict a borrower's credit worthiness with 45% more accuracy than traditional credit scoring. NextBillion
2. Microcredit: Growing incidences of over-indebtedness in Cambodia are causing some to worry the country may face the next microfinance crisis. Is Cambodia the new Chiapas or can regulation cool down the market? The Guardian
3. Financing for Entrepreneurs: If you've ever traveled to major cities in East Africa, you may have dealt with the economics of the boda-boda while bargaining for a good fare rate. But drivers who rent their bikes pass on almost all profits to a "bike lord." A new business model offers drivers lease-to-own financing combined with elements of group lending. How We Made It In Africa
4. Tax Refund: While many Americans report on surveys they will use their expected tax refund to save or pay down debt, there is some evidence these responses are more aspirational than reflective of actual behavior. (Learn more about what US Financial Diaries researchers learned about tax refunds and financial behavior here.) Marketplace
5. Mobile Money: A recent collusion scandal in Uganda illustrates that internal fraud is a much more serious risk that individual end user fraud in mobile money systems. CGAP
Week of March 2, 2015
1. Mobile Banking: The newly released report, State of the Industry 2014: Mobile Financial Services for the Unbanked, shows 255 mobile money services are now live across 89 countries and the number of registered mobile money accounts globally grew to just under 300 million in 2014. GSMA
2. Health: "When you ask people what impacts health you'll get a lot of different answers: Access to good health care and preventative services, personal behavior, exposure to germs or pollution and stress. But if you dig a little deeper you'll find a clear dividing line, and it boils down to one word: money." NPR
3. Payday Lenders: Some two dozen Native American tribes are trading casinos and cigarettes for payday loans. The new lending ventures bring in much needed revenue for many reservations - but at what cost to borrowers? The Washington Post
Week of February 23, 2015
1. Remittances: A number of large banks are no longer operating in certain countries in the global south in response to growing pressure from regulators to comply with rules on anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism. But this movement of "de-banking" means less money in the pockets of families who receive remittances as well as more cash traveling through informal channels. Center for Global Development
2. Behavioral Economics: From mobile wallets to financial management apps, more entrepreneurs and financial service providers are addressing financial inclusion than ever before. But do they truly understand the needs, habits, and culture of the financially underserved? Tilman Ehrbeck and behavioral economist Dan Ariely discuss the role of behavioral economics in designing effective financial inclusion solutions. Omidyar Network
3. The World Bank: In an interview with Jim Yong Kim, Stephen Dubner touches on everything from bringing behavioral economic thinking to the World Bank to Kim's rap performance at a Dartmouth College talent show. Freakonomics
Week of February 16, 2015
1. Informal Finance: FAI's Executive Director Jonathan Morduch discusses what makes informal finance so popular and how financial institutions can respond. NextBillion
2. Cash Transfers: Electronic payments are a fast and effective way to administer cash transfer programs. But what about in failed states, where the lack of infrastructure means driving large piles of cash around to beneficiaries? The Guardian
3. Wealth Inequality: "The fact that 42 percent of African-American Americans between the ages of 25 and 55 had student loan debt in 2013 (compared to 28 percent of whites) reflects a vicious cycle: families’ lower wealth compels students to take on debt, but that debt then hurts their overall wealth well into adulthood." PBS Newshour
Week of February 9, 2015
1. Microfinance: A look at the microfinance industry's rebuilding efforts in a post-Ebola West Africa. Devex
2. Unbanked: In what sounds similar to a time-compressed version of this experiment, Accion Venture Lab's Managing Director reports on his experience of being unbanked for a day. Medium
3. Development Valentines: Every February, Love is in the air...and on Twitter. Storify
Week of February 2, 2015
1. Mobile Banking: Rural customers in India rely on local bank agents and business correspondents to open new accounts. But the requirement (and cost incurred) for holding cash to cover withdrawals during busy periods is not worth the banking agents' while. Could mobile money pose a solution? The Economist
2. Microcredit: What happens when microcredit clients default? The answer depends mostly on where they live. Smart Campaign
3. Regulation and Development: Hernando de Soto played a major role in putting property rights on the development agenda. Planet Money profiles him, where his ideas came from, and the impact they've had. NPR's Planet Money
Week of January 26, 2015
1. Savings Groups: Forty-two percent of the 500 savings groups surveyed across five countries report linkages to a formal financial institution and the remaining 58 percent indicated "a strong interest" in linking to a bank account. The MasterCard Foundation
2. US Household Finance: New research shows 55 percent of American households have less than one month of income in savings, just under half spend more than they make, and 8 percent have debt payments equal to 41 percent or more of their gross monthly income. Pew Charitable Trusts
3. Poverty: How NYC transit cards are like paper towels - and what that means for the economics of being poor. WNYC
Week of January 19, 2015
1. The Gates Letter: The Gates Foundation, while relatively small in the universe of global development, has begun to play an agenda-influencing role. One of their areas of focus is mobile banking and payments. Quartz tells us more. Chris Blattman continues his tradition of grading the entire letter. The Washington Post
2. Mobile Money: But new technologies also bring new risks. Reports from Kenya show a proliferation of digital fraud - the "Nigerian e-mail scam for the Mobile Age." Christian Science Monitor
3. Credit Scores: The New York Times profiles big data alternatives to credit scoring models. Meanwhile, David Porteous and Ignacio Mas remind us that debt repayment history is a relatively new tool used as a “test of character…summarized in a three-digit score”. They suggest avoiding single prescriptions and enabling multiple (formal and informal) avenues for credit access. NextBillion
Week of January 12, 2015
1. Microcredit: At long last, many of the microcredit evaluations we've been talking about for the last few years are officially published. The new issue of AEJ: Appliedincludes six evaluations of microcredit and an overview from Abhijeet Banerjee, Dean Karlan, and Jonathan Zinman. (Ungated versions of the papers are available at each of the authors' websites.) American Economic Journal
2. Medical Debt: Nonprofit hospitals across the U.S. often use debt collection agencies to sue patients who can't or don't pay their bills, creating a compounded financial burden of legal fees and garnished wages for low-income patients. ProPublica
3. Mobile Money: Recently developments show Pakistan's new year's resolution might be to move from over-the-counter mobile transactions via agents to individual account expansion. CGAP
