Technology is driving massive change in financial services, and the Citi Foundation helps Accion ensure that this transformation benefits low-income populations. Mobile phones, AI, chatbots, and other forms of technology are disrupting the financial services industry. These new technologies have tremendous potential to help create inclusive products: they can reduce costs, accelerate turnaround times, and create more personalized and useful services for the underserved. But technology needs to be harnessed in a way that benefits and protects low-income consumers.
With funding from the Citi Foundation, Accion helps financial service providers integrate new technology to reach the underserved, and publishes research that informs the broader industry.

The Citi Foundation is enabling Accion to develop and expand its Global Advisory Solutions team. Accion is now able to use the lessons we have learned through decades of work with financial services providers to help our partners capitalize on the value of their data, leveraging technology and automation to transform their business processes, and better engage existing and new customers.
Through this additional capacity, Accion has helped partners digitize and scale their efforts to reach the underserved. These partners include Swadhaar Finserve and Aye Finance in India, Accion Microfinance Bank in Nigeria, Socremo in Mozambique, DAWN Microfinance in Myanmar, and UGAFODE in Uganda.

Accion’s relationship with the Citi Foundation has enabled new research and insights for the financial inclusion community. Recent examples include:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/financial-inclusion-hype-vs-reality-deconstructing-the-2017-findex-results-2">Financial Inclusion Hype vs. Reality</a> from CFI explores the World Bank’s 2017 Findex data and highlights key financial inclusion indicators, including account usage, borrowing, saving, and resilience.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.accion.org/demystifying-digital-lending">Demystifying Digital Lending</a> from Accion Global Advisory Solutions explains how strategic digital transformations can help financial service providers reach new customers, drive engagement, and help more people benefit from the world’s financial sector.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/finance-for-all-wedded-to-fintech-for-better-or-worse">Finance for All: Wedded to Fintech for Better or Worse</a> examines risks (or “banana skins”) in the provision of financial services to the underserved in emerging markets.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.accion.org/unlocking-the-promise-of-big-data-to-promote-financial-inclusion">Unlocking the Promise of Big Data to Promote Financial Inclusion</a> from Accion Global Advisory Solutions shows how financial service providers can improve their data capabilities.</li>
</ul>
Through this partnership, Accion’s advisory team is expanding its direct work with financial service providers worldwide and continuing to share insights with the industry. At the same time, the Citi Foundation-funded research and publications move forward at CFI.
And Accion relies on leaders from Citi and the Citi Foundation to guide our work: Bob Annibale, Global Director, Citi Community Development and Inclusive Finance, serves on Accion’s Board of Directors, and Philip Brown, Managing Director, Citi Inclusive Finance, serves on the CFI Advisory Council.

Case Study

The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. It supports efforts that advance financial inclusion, and is one of Accion’s longest-standing partners.

The Foundation supports our advisory work and allows us to communicate our learnings to the rest of the industry. It also has been a key supporter of the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion (CFI) and its efforts to engage the industry to better serve, protect, and empower underserved clients.

The Citi Foundation and Accion: Expanding financial inclusion for the underserved

Citi Foundation

Citibank

Given Credit Suisse’s pioneering support for microfinance development, its involvement in the launch of Accion’s “action tank,” the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion (CFI), ten years ago was a perfect fit. CFI engages and challenges the industry to better serve, protect, and empower clients. With Credit Suisse’s support, CFI:
<ul>
<li>conducts research and shares insights to help the industry meet the financial needs of underserved people around the world</li>
<li>supports, convenes, and engages a variety of industry stakeholders — such as policymakers, investors, fintechs, banks, and microfinance institutions — to help make financial inclusion a lasting reality</li>
<li>advocates for client protection and empowerment, working globally to create an environment in which financial services are delivered safely and responsibly to financially capable low-income clients</li>
</ul>
While maintaining their deep commitment to promoting responsible, sustainable microfinance programs, Accion and Credit Suisse have broadened the scope of their involvement in financial inclusion over the last decade. This is illustrated well by Credit Suisse’s recent renaming of their Microfinance Capacity Building Initiative to the Financial Inclusion Initiative.
More recently, Credit Suisse helped support Accion’s groundbreaking work with inclusive fintech startups by becoming an Innovation Partner in Accion Venture Lab. Providing unrestricted funding support means that Venture Lab can be both strategic and opportunistic when researching and identifying potential seed-stage fintech for inclusion investments. Furthermore, it allows Venture Lab team members to provide investee companies with critical post-investment support, helping to ensure their ability to scale and succeed.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Copy-of-Tahira-Dosani-of-Accion-Venture-Lab-at-Credit-Suisse-Latin-America-Investment-Conference.jpeg" alt="" width="400" height="500" />
A recent Venture Lab portfolio addition is NOW Money, which operates in the United Arab Emirates — a region that has not traditionally attracted institutional funder interest to enhance financial inclusion. Thanks to the unrestricted nature of Credit Suisse’s funding, Venture Lab was able to research and ultimately invest in NOW Money, the first fintech in the Gulf region to use mobile banking technology to provide accounts, financial inclusion, and a range of low-cost remittance options to low-income migrant workers. Credit Suisse’s support has also allowed Venture Lab to share its learning with the broader community in an effort to help build the financial inclusion ecosystem, and it has often partnered with the Venture Lab team by inviting them to speak at bank-led conferences and on panels.
Accion and Credit Suisse staff members stay in frequent touch to discuss ongoing projects and new opportunities to advance our shared vision of a financially inclusive world.

Credit Suisse’s unrestricted funding support has helped enable Accion Venture Lab’s support of more than 30 startups using fintech to reach the underserved.

Credit Suisse has been a longstanding partner of Accion, notably in helping to launch both the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) in 2008 and Accion Venture Lab in 2012. Its support has gone well beyond financial contributions and has developed into a valuable relationship of mutual advice, referrals, and opportunities to engage public audiences.

A leading global financial institution, Credit Suisse is committed to, as it states in its corporate responsibility report, “fostering inclusive growth by addressing socio-economic challenges.” Through its involvement in the founding of impact investment asset manager responsibility in 2002 and its own Financial Inclusion Initiative (formerly the Microfinance Capacity Building Initiative), Credit Suisse was one of the first Swiss banks to recognize the power of microfinance as both a transformative tool for the financially excluded, and an investment opportunity for its clients.

Credit Suisse and Accion: Exploring new frontiers in financial inclusion

Credit Suisse

To develop a set of international model legal recommendations and responsible consumer protection practices for regulators, Accion and New Perimeter began with one of CFI’s signature initiatives: the Smart Campaign, the world’s first global consumer protection for the poor. CFI engages and challenges the industry to better serve, protect, and empower clients, and the Smart Campaign’s Client Protection Principles detail how financial service providers can ensure transparency, establish fair pricing, resolve complaints, and develop other qualities needed to create a responsible financial sector.
For over four years, New Perimeter dedicated roughly 20 DLA Piper lawyers and 3,400 hours of pro bono support to adapt the Client Protection Principles into model legislation, regulations, and other policy tools. They also undertook significant research and an extensive consultative process with the Smart Campaign and other consumer protection experts, senior management from Accion partners, and CEOs at other organizations dedicated to financial inclusion to develop the Model Legal Framework for financial consumer protection.

By translating the Smart Campaign’s Client Protection Principles into model legal and regulatory language, the Model Legal Framework provides policymakers with the tools they need to revise or update laws and regulations, evaluate existing legal frameworks, and promote dialogue among industry, government, and consumer protection advocates. The Framework provides practical, adaptable guidance for a variety of legal frameworks and jurisdictions; it also serves as a focal point in providing training for regulators and financial service providers to develop and enforce strong consumer protection practices that build client trust and support financial inclusion.
As of March, 2019, more than 650 financial inclusion stakeholders from 85 countries – including over 300 regulators and bank supervisors – have received training in how to best use the Model Legal Framework. New Perimeter and Accion have also established partnerships with financial inclusion authorities and other industry networks – including the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, the World Bank, and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor − to promote the Model Legal Framework. And to encourage the tool’s availability and uptake, Accion and New Perimeter have translated the Model Legal Framework into French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Khmer.

The Accion and New Perimeter teams were named a Grunin Prize 2018 Finalist in recognition of their efforts to advance the goals of sustainable human development. Accion continues to work with New Perimeter to update the Model Legal Framework to account for emerging best practices concerning digital financial services; their next edition will help still more families and businesses benefit from the formal financial sector.

Regulators and policymakers are key to creating a financially inclusive world: their decisions affect financial service providers, fintech innovators, investors, and individual clients. And they’re instrumental in establishing responsible, standards-based industries that protect and empower clients.

Working alongside the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion (CFI), Accion’s legal team sought to develop a new model tool and legal guidance that would help policymakers and financial service providers contribute to a financially inclusive world.

This ambitious project demanded the right type of legal support: Accion relied on New Perimeter, a nonprofit organization established by global law firm DLA Piper. New Perimeter’s global focus and demonstrated commitment to large-scale pro bono projects made it an ideal partner to take to on this long-term, industry-shaping work.

Partnering for consumer protection: DLA Piper, New Perimeter and Accion

DLA Piper

FedEx

In June 2017, FMO, Accion Venture Lab, and Quona Capital hosted the CEO Forum and Fintech for Inclusion Global Summit 2017, a unique, two-day gathering that brought together more than 40 Accion Venture Lab, Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund, FMO, and Catalyst Fund partner CEOs. On the first day, the executives came together to exchange insights on key leadership and strategic business challenges facing inclusive fintech startups, and opportunities to overcome them. The following day, the Fintech for Inclusion Global Summit convened our CEOs with more than 200 ecosystem partners – impact investors, bankers, venture capitalists, and other financial inclusion industry leaders – who could help their businesses grow. The event fostered a peer-learning community to advance participants’ shared interest in innovation and inclusive finance.
<div style="width: 1010px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img src="http://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IMG_1072.CR2_.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="677" />FMO Accion Venture Lab, Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund, and Catalyst Fund partner CEOs celebrate at the conclusion of the 2017 CEO Forum.</div>

Since 1996, FMO has been a supporter of one of Accion’s signature projects: BancoSol in Bolivia, which Accion helped found in 1992 as the world’s first commercial bank dedicated to microfinance. One of Latin America’s leading microfinance institutions, BancoSol’s success over the decades has demonstrated that microlending can be both financially profitable for lenders and economically transformative for clients. For more than two decades, FMO and Accion have worked in tandem to provide capital, advice on corporate governance , and world-class technical assistance to microfinance institutions in developing markets—most recently in Myanmar, through our work with DAWN Microfinance, a lender to microentrepreneurs in Yangon and other urban and peri-urban centers throughout the country.

FMO has been a champion of strong corporate governance practices for financial institutions, supporting initiatives like the Africa Board Fellowship (ABF) program. A project of the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion, ABF provides mentorship and peer learning exchanges to strengthen the governance of financial institutions serving low-income clients throughout sub-Saharan Africa. FMO has also supported and attended leadership seminars with Accion throughout the world, bringing key stakeholders together to discuss issues of governance and risk.

The Smart Campaign, a project of CFI, is a global campaign committed to embedding client protection practices into the institutional culture and operations of the financial inclusion industry. FMO has been a key partner to the campaign, leading the consumer protection agenda with investors and encouraging the development of standards for new inclusive finance institutions. They have worked with the Campaign in the areas of responsible finance for refugees and responsible consumer lending, and are actively supporting our work to establish standards for fintech investors that ensure client protection is a part of investment decisions.
Today, Accion’s work with FMO continues. Among other projects, we are exploring the expansion of the Africa Board Fellows program and developing practical guidance for stakeholders in designing the governance of early-stage companies.
In FMO, Accion has found a valuable partner with which it can support entrepreneurs and institutions around the world who are building a more inclusive world.
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For more than twenty years, FMO, the Dutch development bank, has been a valuable financial and nonfinancial supporter of Accion’s work. Together, we have built a partnership based on a shared commitment to entrepreneurs, innovation, and strong governance of financial institutions. FMO is committed to becoming a “preferred partner to invest in local prosperity,” and alongside Accion, it has found unique opportunities to achieve that.

FMO and Accion: Empowering entrepreneurs, supporting innovation, and strengthening governance

Keith V. Kiernan Foundation

Mastercard and Accion have worked together to empower entrepreneurs across the world, through inclusive tech solutions that meet hyperlocal needs. One example is India’s Aye Finance, a startup that lends to small businesses that don’t meet the traditional criteria for business loans. The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth helped fund Accion’s advisory service team’s work with Aye to develop digital solutions for its clients. Notably, the team was able to introduce a mobile app that enables small business owners to track business inputs, sales, payables and receivables to help them run more efficiently and allow Aye to offer more relevant targeted products and services. Mastercard continues to be a critical part of Accion’s overall work seeking out exciting new companies to support.
In order to help Accion Venture Lab to deepen its support for MSME financing companies that help small and growing businesses around the world to meet their financial needs, Mastercard funding has been used to assist Venture Lab in identifying and investing in promising MSME lender startups, helping its current MSME-oriented portfolio companies to grow and thrive, and amplifying the potential for investor interest in this sector.

In November 2018, Mastercard and Accion announced a <a href="https://www.accion.org/mastercard-and-accion-partner-to-unlock-growth-for-millions-of-underserved-microbusinesses-around-the-world">first-of-its-kind partnership</a> to bring their worldwide networks and resources together to transform millions of underserved micro and small businesses around the world. Through insights, innovations and investments, the organizations will power microbusinesses to successfully operate in, and benefit from, the digital economy, leading to greater financial inclusion, economic growth and job creation.
Separately, a $12 million grant for Accion is being independently provided by the <a href="https://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-announces-initial-contribution-to-500-million-inclusive-growth-fund/">Mastercard Impact Fund</a> to digitize and modernize the financial service providers that serve this vital segment of society. This initiative will bring efficiency, transparency and scale to their operations, reaching up to 10 million people over four years.
<a href="https://www.accion.org/mastercard-and-accion-partner-to-unlock-growth-for-millions-of-underserved-microbusinesses-around-the-world">Find out more about the partnership here.</a>

Accion celebrated its partnership with Mastercard in 2016 by honoring President and CEO Ajay Banga at its 55th-anniversary gala. Under Banga’s leadership, in 2015, Mastercard pledged to reach 500 million people previously excluded from financial services by the year 2020. As of the end of 2017, it had reached 330 million through initiatives in over 60 countries, including projects carried out with Accion.
The Accion-Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth relationship continues to be a fruitful one, with frequent engagements between leaders from both organizations to discuss areas of mutual interest and opportunities to collaborate on events, research, and programs.
&nbsp;

Mastercard and Accion: Partnering for inclusive growth

Mastercard

Since 2008, the Mastercard Foundation has supported several Accion initiatives, underscoring our shared commitment to building prosperity through financial inclusion and education. The Mastercard Foundation-Accion relationship has evolved over a decade, and each has enabled the other to explore new areas and reach underserved populations, especially in Africa.

&nbsp;

The Smart Campaign

The Mastercard Foundation was an early sponsor of the Smart Campaign, a global campaign committed to embedding client protection practices into the institutional culture and operations of the financial inclusion industry. Spearheaded by the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion (CFI), the initiative is focused on creating an environment in which financial services are delivered safely and responsibly to low-income clients. The Foundation’s initial and continuing support for educating financial service providers and consumers alike has been central to the Campaign’s progress. The Mastercard Foundation enabled the Smart Campaign’s expansion into five focus countries in Africa, where it is addressing client protection and empowerment issues emerging from new technologies and seeking to affect change at a national level.

&nbsp;

Leadership Development in Financial Inclusion 

In addition, the Foundation has helped fund two innovative Accion programs for leadership development in financial inclusion. Over the course of a decade, scholarship funding from the Foundation allowed for more than 340 leaders from financial institutions around the world to participate in the annual Harvard Business School-Accion Program on Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance. This unique executive education opportunity brings professionals together to learn about the latest challenges and breakthroughs in financial inclusion and develop their problem-solving skills. The Foundation also supports CFI’s Africa Board Fellowship, a peer learning, and exchange program for executives and board members from African financial institutions that focus on building capacity in governance and risk management. More than 230 fellows from approximately 60 African institutions have taken part in the program to date.

&nbsp;

Accion Venture Lab in Sub-Saharan Africa

Most recently, the Mastercard Foundation has been a key sponsor of Accion Venture Lab’s work in Africa. In addition to general support for Venture Lab’s efforts to identify, invest in, and support promising fintech start-ups in Africa, the Foundation is also sponsoring pilot projects, such as the new “Company Builder” initiative, which recruits experienced business executives with entrepreneurial aspirations to create fintech startups from scratch in Nigeria.

The Mastercard Foundation-Accion partnership has yielded multiple pioneering initiatives whose legacy is only beginning to take shape, as financial service providers and fintech entrepreneurs build a more inclusive economy in Africa and beyond.

&nbsp;

Mastercard Foundation and Accion: Building prosperity through financial inclusion and education

Mastercard Foundation

Accion, MetLife Foundation, and the Chinese Association of Microfinance launched the first holistic, systematic microfinance management training and capacity building initiative in China. The program involved a hands-on approach so participants could develop their leadership and management skills, as well as sound technical knowledge in microfinance operations and human capital management. The program reached 73 participants from 34 leading microfinance institutions which serve more than one million clients.

We recently expanded our partnership with programs that leverage digital solutions to enhance underserved customers’ financial capabilities and engagement. In Latin America, we are working to better understand customer needs and help financial service providers design, test, and implement innovations that drive usage and improve customers’ financial capabilities. In Eastern Europe, we are partnering with Microfinance Centre, a regional microfinance resource center and network of organizations in Europe and Central Asia, to develop and promote digital tools that providers can use to diagnose clients’ financial health, identify gaps, and develop actionable plans to improve their financial well-being.

Accion and MetLife Foundation pursue joint opportunities — like content collaborations, speaking opportunities, research, and commentary — to engage the industry and help it better reach the underserved. Accion shares stories of our impact through MetLife Foundation initiatives like the Wall Street Journal’s <a href="https://partners.wsj.com/metlife/multipliers/articles/bridging-entrepreneurial-gender-gap/?cx_testId=0&amp;cx_testVariant=cx_1&amp;cx_artPos=24&amp;cx_type=search&amp;cx_spnsr=djcc_metlife&amp;cx_navSource=djcc_metlife-unfiltered#cxrecs_s">Multipliers of Prosperity</a> platform and the <a href="https://nextbillion.net/does-greater-inclusion-lead-to-financial-health/">Next Billion</a> blog. Together, the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion (CFI) and MetLife Foundation support the Economist Intelligence Unit&#8217;s Global Microscope, which benchmarks national progress on financial inclusion around the world and catalyzes reform. And a two-year initiative between CFI, the Institute of International Finance, and MetLife Foundation is using research, knowledge exchange, best practices, real world examples, and expert insights, to identify and share practical guidance that financial institutions can use to expand quality services to the poor.

In 2011, CFI launched an initiative using 2020 as a target date to spur the financial inclusion community to more significant impact. MetLife Foundation advised the effort and provided financial support to CFI’s working groups, each tasked with creating a roadmap for a different enabler of inclusion. This effort culminated in a global forum that brought together practitioners and thought leaders in financial inclusion. To help sustain the momentum, the Foundation sponsored several CFI initiatives to develop tools and research for the industry.
Today, MetLife Foundation continues to be a thought partner, a collaborator, a funder, and an advisor to Accion, providing critical support for our efforts to build a financially inclusive world.

MetLife Foundation's longstanding partnership and philanthropic support of Accion’s work, and our joint public engagement efforts, have raised awareness of the opportunities and solutions to advance financial inclusion. Since 2013 MetLife Foundation's core focus has been to improve the financial health of low-income individuals across the globe. Together, we’ve helped underserved people around the world gain access to the tools they need to improve their lives.
<h5>EMPOWERING THE PEOPLE OF MYANMAR</h5>
Since 2015, MetLife Foundation has supported Accion’s partnership with Early Dawn Microfinance (DAWN) to provide entrepreneurs in Myanmar — especially women in rural areas — with microfinance services. When we began working with DAWN, it served 25,000 clients with less than $2 million in loans, and loan officers recorded clients’ activity entirely by hand, which could take up to four hours a day. As an investor and operating partner, Accion has worked with DAWN to reach new customer segments, improve and expand its product offerings, leverage new technologies and channels, and improve its operational efficiency. Today, that previous four hours of work takes just 20 minutes, giving loan officers more time to meet with and understand their clients. Now, DAWN is a premier institution that serves as a model for the country’s nascent microfinance industry, serving more than 160,000 clients with more than $30 million in loans.

Institutional Partnerships