The elderly, young people, the homeless and casual workers are just some of the groups that might have a difficult time participating in the economy, the article notes. Some do not have the skills to use digital payments, do not have access to the internet, do not have a credit history or a fixed address:

A dependence on cash can be linked to the digital divide that exists in both rich and poor countries, said Mayada El-Zoghbi, managing director for the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI), an independent U.S. think tank.

“A move to a cashless society will not benefit all groups equally. The groups that are most likely to be excluded will be women, rural communities, and the elderly,” she said.

Read the full article <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-banks-britain-trfn-idUSKBN23X0XE" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.

&nbsp;

Reuters Quotes Mayada El-Zoghbi on Going Cashless During the Pandemic

It is hard to imagine who would scam an older adult over their hard-earned savings. But the reality is that as many as <a href="http://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/older-consumers-targeted-by-fraudsters-not-once-but-twice/">17 percent</a> of Americans aged 65 or older report that they have been the victim of financial exploitation. What’s more, only one in 44 of these cases are ever brought to the attention of protective services. In total, billions of dollars are lost each year due to the financial abuse of older Americans. Recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) adopted a <a href="http://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/serving-up-hot-meals-with-consumer-education-protect-older-americans-abuse/">novel approach</a> to combatting this trend, intervening with financial education … over a meal.

The CFPB designed a placemat that contains financial education tips on how older adults can avoid scams and maintain their financial wellbeing. The placemat feature advices on navigating lotteries and sweepstakes, phone call offers, and advances from those who are either loved ones or who are purporting to represent loved ones.

To distribute the educational materials the CFPB has teamed up with <a href="http://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/">Meals on Wheels</a>, a nonprofit organization that addresses older adult hunger and isolation through the delivery of quality meals as well as friendly visits and safety checks to communities around the country. Over 75,000 placemats will be distributed by the CFPB / Meals on Wheels team.

A printer-friendly version of the placemat is available for <a href="http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/201605_cfpb_meals-on-wheels-placemat.pdf">download</a>, or you can reach out to the CFPB to be mailed the full-size version. The mats could be incorporated via, along with meal services, assisted living facilities, senior centers, social groups, and other networks that engage older American adults who might be isolated or not have people helping to manage their finances or look out for them.

The CFPB initiative embodies a few of the <a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/04/12/a-change-in-behavior-innovations-in-financial-capability/">seven behaviorally-informed practices</a> that show great promise for application in financial capability-building, which were identified in the recent CFI project <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/publications-a-resources/browse-publications/724">A Change in Behavior: Innovations in Financial Capability</a>:
<ul>
 	<li>Rules of Thumb (Heuristics): The placemat uses mental shortcuts that makes the main messages memorable: never pay to play, take your time, and check with loved ones.</li>
 	<li>Customize It: The placemat tailors financial security information to the older adult population segment, including scenarios like lottery sweepstakes and grandchildren requesting financial help.</li>
 	<li>Make It Social: The placemat is delivered by a person who is tasked with checking in on the older adult, leveraging the human connection that accompanies the message.</li>
</ul>
Low-cost, integrated financial education materials support financial well-being in other contexts, too. In our report with HelpAge International, <a href="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/aging_and_financial_inclusion_an_opportunity.pdf">Aging and Financial Inclusion: An Opportunity</a>, we discussed the widespread barriers to the financial inclusion of older populations, one of which was a lack of client trust in financial services providers. In our follow-up conversations with key stakeholders following the research, we found that in addition to the provider-side barriers to the financial inclusion of older adults, elder financial exploitation was one of the most concerning trends—and was relevant to people at all income levels in all of the countries we engaged with.

Beyond serving the older adult population, integrated messaging efforts like these help educate on financial scams as well as other financial areas for various demographics around the world. For younger people, financial education messages are often integrated into school curriculum, but could be reinforced in places like lunchrooms and on the backs of cereal boxes. To help young parents consider how to pay for their childrens’ college education, information about education investment accounts could be advertised in parenting magazines and on relevant blogs.

Well done, CFPB, and we look forward to more campaigns like this one.

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2015/02/10/aging-and-financial-inclusion-an-opportunity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Aging and Financial Inclusion: An Opportunity</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2014/09/16/the-opportunity-in-pensions-expanding-with-life-expectancy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Opportunity of Pensions Expanding with Life Expectancy</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2015/02/17/talking-agefinclusion-meeting-the-financial-needs-of-the-rapidly-growing-older-demographic/">Talking #AgeFinclusion: Meeting the Financial Needs of the Rapidly Growing Older Demographic</a>

Combatting Elder Financial Exploitation…Over Dinner

&gt; Posted by Christy Stickney, Independent Consultant

<img class="alignright wp-image-21603" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/thumb_4663dca026224cdc9e1d988473581c36.jpg" width="330" height="220" />"Como tengo ya 57 años, ya no quiero más fuerte." (Since I’m already 57, I don’t want [to work] any harder.) – A market vendor in Lima, commenting on her vision for her business’ growth.

“Tengo tantos planes, pero ya me siento cansado."  (I have so many plans, but I already feel tired.)  --  A 42-year-old owner of a bakery in Guayaquil.

“Después de pagar todo y sacar las hijas de la escuela puedo descansar." (After paying off everything and getting my daughters through school I can rest.)  -- A 37-year-old paint store owner in Lima.

Entrepreneurs work hard—and when it comes to envisioning their older age they want to be able to have the luxury of slowing down. The above were common themes expressed by entrepreneurs in the three countries where I conducted my research as part of a <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/programs-a-projects/cfi-and-accion-research-fellows">CFI fellowship</a>. “I’m tired.”  “I never rest.”  “We don’t take time off.” These are sacrifices associated with running one’s own business, especially among those who have grown their firms from a truly micro size, rising up from poverty and informality into what could be labeled as a “small enterprise” or SME (typically classified as those employing between 5 and 250 workers).

Throughout the developing world, active saving for retirement and participation in formal financial services for older age, like pensions, are minimal. Entrepreneurs of micro-businesses and SMEs face even fewer options than the formally employed, as they tend to operate outside the scope of either private or state-sponsored pension plans. The intention of my research was to learn about the nature of the micro-to-SME entrepreneurs and their businesses, as well as their experiences in growing their enterprises, overcoming hurdles, and utilizing available resources to their benefit. The goal of the research is to inform how to tailor financial services, which are key to enterprise growth, to this client niche. However, in studying these entrepreneurs and their businesses, I also encountered a pervasive alternative being pursued for the financing of one’s later years...

But my first step to finding these entrepreneurs was to identify MFIs’ borrowers with steadily increasing business loan sizes, expecting to expose entrepreneurs with vibrant businesses that were poised for growth. However, the “growth entrepreneurs,” as I’ve named them, represent only about a quarter of the clients I interviewed in low-income neighborhoods of Lima, Quito, Guayaquil, and Santo Domingo. Among the remaining three quarters, there emerged many entrepreneurs that spoke of fatigue and of their desire to slow down and eventually stop working. Clearly, they had worked hard to build up their businesses from scratch, requiring long hours and few breaks. Most of them have raised a family, and along with growing their enterprises have put their kids through school, built a house, and even created jobs or homes for their adult children. Nevertheless, for many of them, their economic futures feel uncertain. Their cash savings are insignificant. As entrepreneurs, they have not invested in a pension, and the majority has not contributed to social security.

Thus, I was both surprised and relieved to discover that among the entrepreneurs that were slowing down, many had invested in rental units as a source of future income. Almost half of the clients interviewed had bought and built rental properties, and quite a few were using their loans to purchase land and build more rentals, repaying these with income from their relatively stable microenterprises. One example is Claude, a Haitian migrant living in Santo Domingo, who has slowly built his second story home and two rental apartments below through microfinance loans that he repays with the meager income from his door-to-door sales business. As in Claude’s case, apartments are often built above or below the microfinance client’s own residence, comprising incremental construction projects that may reach up to four or five stories. Other clients I visited had bought empty lots, after catching wind of a good deal, with future plans of developing these into rental spaces. Former homes and business sites were also rented as owners moved to better locations.

"Tengo que pensar en mi vejez, la enfermedad.... Pensar a tiempo." (I need to think about my [future] old age, and infirmities.... To think in time.) -- A small day-care owner in Santo Domingo, reflecting on her reasons for building rental apartments behind her home.

What I observed is that rental properties are not only an attractive investment strategy for successful microenterprise owners in the cities I visited; rental income has become the de facto pension for much of this population. Undoubtedly, steady urban growth is fueling domestic rental markets, making this a very profitable venture and relatively stable source of future income.

Through reflecting on these observations, which are but a corollary to my study focus, I’m left with more questions than answers.
<ul>
 	<li>How common is this strategy of investing in rental properties to finance retirement among microfinance clients in other contexts?</li>
 	<li>How can financial service providers and the broader microfinance industry better support clients in planning for retirement, whether investing in rentals or other options?</li>
 	<li>And what are lower-income clients’ other options for financing later life? How about offering them alternative investment products, micro-pensions, or specialized savings plans?</li>
</ul>
Perhaps these underscore a next frontier for not only aging micro-entrepreneurs, but also for the maturing microfinance institutions that have been serving them for the past several decades.

Image credit: Accion

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2013/01/16/microfinance-as-a-tool-for-active-aging/" target="_blank">Microfinance as a Tool for Active Aging</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2015/09/21/announcing-cfi-and-accions-research-fellows/">Announcing... CFI and Accion's Research Fellows</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2014/09/16/the-opportunity-in-pensions-expanding-with-life-expectancy/">The Opportunity in Pensions Expanding With Life Expectancy</a>

Rental Properties: A Popular Pension Plan for Aging Entrepreneurs?

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/2652377697/in/album-72157601463875207/"><img class="alignright wp-image-20072" style="border: 0 solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/2652377697_7cd2f08d4e_o.jpg" alt="2652377697_7cd2f08d4e_o" width="349" height="224" /></a>Aging is an issue that we all hope to face personally, if we haven’t already. As we prepare to participate in <a href="http://www.e-mfp.eu/microfinance-week">European Microfinance Week</a>, we are more convinced than ever that this is a critical topic for the financial inclusion community to address. (If you are planning to be at European Microfinance Week too, make sure to <a href="https://event.neimenster.lu/ehome/emw2015/308192/?&amp;">check out our panel</a> on the Sustainable Development Goals and financial inclusion!) In Europe, the aging of the population is well acknowledged. With average life expectancy in Europe among the highest in the world, at 77 years, the proportion of the population reaching older age is naturally growing. About 25 percent of Europe’s population is now over the age of 60, and that percentage is set to rise. The aging of the population is well understood in Europe, but what is less recognized is that the middle and lower-middle income countries of the world – the countries that encompass most of the world’s population – are already beginning to experience the same older age population boom. In most middle income countries, from Mexico to China, over-60s are the fastest growing cohort of the population. Aging is a product of successful development. Increased life expectancy, better family planning mechanisms, and higher quality of life all contribute to growth in the proportion of the population that is older.

Aging is a reality, but can it also represent an opportunity for financial institutions? The smart money is on providers who recognize that the answer is yes, and work to figure out how to respond.

We’ve created a list of activities, some practical and some research-oriented, we think would be valuable to close the gaps in financial inclusion for older people and for younger people who want to prepare for their older age. And, frankly, we would love for you to steal these ideas!

Develop a toolkit for becoming an age-friendly institution. We hear of a few financial institutions—from MFIs to commercial banks—that are using age as a lens through which to segment product offerings. From long-term savings products for people in their primary working years to credit designed for older people, being age-friendly across the life course allows a focus on life transitions and the diverse financial needs that accompany them. Case studies and toolkits would help financial institutions follow proven approaches. As part of becoming an age-friendly institution, there are a few starting points that would make a big impact:
Age-proof channels and technology. Financial institutions recognize that new technology, new channels, and new products must be built with the user experience in mind. There are existing vehicles for testing channels and technology to ensure that they work for older people. As part of vetting channels and technology, financial institutions can leverage older persons’ associations, assuring the technology’s validity for later life.
Ensure that staff members are not discriminating based on age. Financial institutions and support organizations can test the customer experience through mystery shopping in order to better understand how people of different ages are treated when they walk into a branch. An exercise like this could inform market-specific training modules to dispel myths about aging for staff of financial institutions.
Use existing data to create better products. Financial institutions have a wealth of data on clients that goes unused, and age is one data point that is collected because of the way that AML/CFT laws are translated into institutional policy. Financial institutions can use the data they have on clients to better understand how age influences client behavior. From this data, financial institutions have the opportunity to create better products to serve people across their life cycle, and especially into their older age.
Enhance financial security in older age by leveraging G2P and P2G early on. The shift toward electronic government-to-person and person-to-government payments presents an opportunity for creating “on-ramps” to inclusion. Leveraging these products could include automatically diverting funds sent through electronic channels to help people save funds for older age (which is already happening in many parts of the world) or using electronic G2P payments that go to older people as collateral for loans (older people are often seen as higher risk). Financial institutions which provide the accounts through which electronic payments are channeled have the positioning to capitalize on this opportunity.

Raise or eliminate age caps on credit and insurance. Over half of the institutions we <a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/09/10/aging-and-financial-inclusion-a-client-protection-issue/">surveyed earlier this year</a> reported that they impose upper age restrictions on their products. Many age caps at microfinance institutions are based on outdated actuarial tables, and are ripe for being challenged or creatively eliminated. Many people who are older may be willing to pay more for credit. And financial institutions could find highly receptive clients if they responsibly raise age caps on credit products. A dedicated loan guarantee fund could help mitigate perceived risk during a pilot phase, accompanied with careful performance monitoring to provide more data about actual risks of lending to older adults.

Enable people to save for their older age. Pension systems were designed for a largely formal labor force, and the current reality of the size of informal markets does not match the intention of pensions systems. More progressive governments have begun to reform their pension systems to account for the more informal labor force, by creating alternative channels for contributions at places like corner stores and through mobile phones. Financial institutions can also play a role, either serving as channels to collect funds for the pension system or by setting up independent long-term savings programs that promise a competitive interest rate.

We are confident that there are a hundred more ideas that are just as good (or better). More importantly, though, we look forward to seeing a world in which age is not a barrier to people having access to a full range of quality financial services.

If you end up stealing one of these ideas, or if you’re already doing something to advance industry thinking on aging, let us know—we would love to champion your work.

Image credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/2652377697/in/album-72157601463875207/">World Bank</a>

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/02/20/moving-to-action-on-aging-and-financial-inclusion/">Moving to Action on Aging and Financial Inclusion</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/02/10/aging-and-financial-inclusion-an-opportunity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Aging and Financial Inclusion: An Opportunity</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/09/10/aging-and-financial-inclusion-a-client-protection-issue/">Aging and Financial Inclusion: A Client Protection Issue?</a>

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&nbsp;

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&nbsp;

Aging and Financial Inclusion: Steal These Ideas!

&gt; Posted by ideas42

The following post was <a href="http://www.ideas42.org/blog/pathway-better-retirement-mexico/" target="_blank">originally published</a> on the ideas42 blog.

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/2652381865/in/album-72157606068898904/"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-20045" style="border:0 solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/2652381865_b1e561877c_o.jpg" alt="" width="616" height="395" /></a>It’s simply a fact that many products, policies, and services created specifically to benefit everyday people are either under-used or not used at all. Whether it’s helpful savings tools, financial aid for education, or comprehensive health insurance plans, many of us simply never enroll or use them despite intending to do so. So what’s going on?

One major factor is that most of these underutilized programs have been designed according to a "traditional" view of human behavior, in which designers assume that we always take the time to consider all of our options, choose what’s rationally the best option for us, and then act on it.

Behavioral science, however, breaks from this traditional model. We find that in reality, we don’t always carefully compare our options, if we even think about them at all. Likewise, if we do make a good choice, we may not necessarily follow through on it. So in order for solutions to be truly effective, they must be designed for how people really are, rather than how we imagine they should be.

This was one of the main things ideas42 kept in mind when approaching the problem of low retirement contribution rates in Mexico. <a href="http://www.ideas42.org/blog/tackling-low-retirement-savings-mexico/">Regular readers of our blog may remember</a> that under the current pension system, Mexican workers stand to retire on just 40 percent of their current salary, unless they make additional individual contributions—yet the overwhelming majority of Mexicans aren’t taking these crucial steps to improve their savings.

With funding from the MetLife Foundation, we worked with key members of the Mexican retirement system to dive deeper into the behavioral barriers influencing low voluntary contributions. We conducted interviews with stakeholders and account holders across major cities in Mexico, as well as in-depth analyses of administrative materials and data. Based on the <a href="http://www.ideas42.org/blog/tackling-low-retirement-savings-mexico/">insights we uncovered</a>, we designed a variety of behavioral solutions and recommendations for the Mexican pension system:
<ul>
	<li>Create an opt-out system linking accounts to paychecks or bank accounts to make retirement savings automatic and effortless.</li>
	<li>Use visualization exercises, goal-setting activities, and reminders to make retirement feel vivid.</li>
	<li>Tie contributions to actual benefits and re-frame messaging to lessen the feeling of loss associated with saving for the future.</li>
	<li>Make retirement savings visible and commonplace by demonstrating that most community members believe they should save more for a comfortable retirement.</li>
</ul>
These recommendations and potential behavioral solutions make up our new report, <a href="http://www.ideas42.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/I42_571_MexicoPensionsReport_ENG_final_digital.pdf">Using Behavioral Science to Increase Retirement Savings</a>. The report, <a href="http://www.ideas42.org/blog/project/increasing-retirement-savings/">available here in English and Spanish</a>, was unveiled this week at an event hosted by CONSAR, MetLife Foundation and ideas42 in Mexico City.

Behavioral solutions like the ones outlined in our <a href="http://www.ideas42.org/blog/project/increasing-retirement-savings/">report</a> have the potential to increase retirement savings for millions of people, but it is crucial to test any solution in the field to evaluate its effectiveness. We’re currently engaging with key members of the pension system to implement various testable interventions in Mexico and Latin America. It is our hope that our report and ongoing work in Mexico over the coming months will inspire others to approach long-term savings from a new perspective—one that better aligns with the realities of human behavior—to improve financial health for millions of people worldwide.

Image credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/2652381865/in/album-72157606068898904/">World Bank</a>

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/06/05/tackling-low-retirement-savings-in-mexico/">Tackling Low Retirement Savings in Mexico</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/05/27/would-you-like-a-pension-with-that/">“Would you like a pension with that?”</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/04/30/aging-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean-challenge-meets-opportunity/" target="_blank">Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean: Challenge Meets Opportunity</a>

A Pathway to Better Retirement in Mexico

&gt; Posted by Larry Reed, Director, the Microcredit Summit Campaign, and Jesse Marsden, Research and Operations Manager, the Microcredit Summit Campaign

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/106853342@N04/10666354605/"><img class="alignright wp-image-19542" style="border: 0 solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/10666354605_d44199b1de_z.jpg" alt="" width="315" height="210" /></a>

In collaboration with the CFI’s process to develop the <a href="http://www.fi2020progressreport.org/">Financial Inclusion 2020 Progress Report</a>, the Microcredit Summit Campaign recently conducted interviews with microfinance leaders* around the world committed to reaching the most excluded. In this post, we share some of the insights from these conversations about how to ensure that the most invisible clients are financially included, directly drawn from the experiences of those who are doing it.

To set the stage, Luis Fernando Sanabria, General Manager of Fundación Paraguaya, made this central point: "Our clients need to be the protagonists of their own development stories. Our products should be the tools they use to meet their needs and empower their aspirations." With that reminder of the purpose of financial inclusion, we begin the discussion by asking who are the most excluded.

In each country, people living in extreme poverty (below US$1.25 a day) make up the largest segment of those excluded from the financial system. We spoke with leaders from organizations that make intentional efforts to reach this large excluded market: Fundación Paraguaya; Pro Mujer; Fonkoze; Plan Paraguay; Equitas; Grama Vidiyal; and TMSS. These organizations not only address poverty, but also a host of other dimensions that lead to exclusion, including literacy, race, gender, physical disabilities, and age. Less frequently-discussed reasons for exclusion include sexual orientation, language barriers (especially among indigenous populations), and mental or emotional health issues. In India and Bangladesh, for example, those interviewed noted that the lack of personal identification often drove exclusion, especially among women, persons with disabilities, and the socially excluded, such as transgender individuals.

In order to reach the most excluded, you have to know who they are. “Often the poorest families are invisible in their own communities,” said Steve Werlin of Fonkoze in Haiti. “When we do the wealth rankings in a community, they aren’t even mentioned.” Fonkoze takes steps to make sure that all households get included in their surveys so that the community can see who they have left out. Creating this visibility is essential. On a wider scale, in government statistics on economic activity, data on people over 65 is simply discarded or never collected.

Everyone, and every client, is unique. One of the messages of the FI2020 Progress Report is that the base of the pyramid (BoP) is not a monolithic bloc. Arjun Muralidharan of Grama Vidiyal in India noted that “You need to have a particular and unique strategy to seek out and serve these groups. This begins with deciding who you are going after. Different populations have very different problems.”

Two key elements for including the most excluded populations are building trust and overcoming prejudice. Not only do the financially excluded need to become confident in their services providers’ ability to responsibly manage their money, but they often have to become comfortable participating in a society that has regularly closed its doors to them. “Working with disenfranchised groups is hard. We need to provide extra training and services to help overcome their self-exclusion,” said Muralidharan. Grama Vidiyal provides health services and legal rights training to members of the Dalit group (formerly known as untouchables) before including them in savings and lending groups. On the other side of the equation are financial services staff attitudes. “In order to include people with disabilities, we need to train our staff first, to get them to overcome their prejudice,” said John Alex of Equitas in India. Equitas provides disability awareness training for its staff and clients and encourages them to find people with disabilities in their communities to include in the institution’s borrowing groups. Equitas also adapted its training and application systems to be accessible for people who are blind, deaf, mute, or face other physical limitations.

Excluded groups may have financial needs that do not fit the typical cash flows of other clients. TMSS asked rural farmers in northern Bangladesh what programs the farmers felt would be best to introduce. This client-first approach led to new programs that combined loans and savings in sync with the growing season. TMSS also changed its policies and products to meet the needs of an aging population - eliminating its age limit for borrowers. The institution also provides savings services for these clients and training for the next generation of family members to make sure they will be cared for as they age.

Those excluded from financial services often face many other types of exclusion as well, leaving them with a range of constraints that they need to address:
<ul>
 	<li>Both Fonkoze and Plan Paraguay employ the <a href="http://tup.brac.net/">Ultra Poor Graduation Model</a> developed by BRAC that provides a combination of cash transfers, training, savings, an asset, mentoring, and access to credit.</li>
 	<li>Equitas works with homeless people and provides housing and financial capacity training before providing loans.</li>
 	<li>TMSS provides health services, financial capability training, and vocational training.</li>
</ul>
These organizations often partner with the government and others to make sure their clients have access to the range of services they need. Fundación Paraguaya uses its <a href="http://www.fundacionparaguaya.org.py/?page_id=490">Poverty Stoplight</a> monitoring system to assess its clients on a checklist of 50 items related to poverty, health, education, and employment. It uses this data to bring in government services for common areas of need. Equitas partners with local hospitals, and Grama Vidiyal works with the government health insurance system to provide for the health needs of clients.

Achieving financial inclusion requires consistent energy to attain, maintain, and measure progress. Fundación Paraguaya uses its Stoplight system to enable clients to define and measure their own achievements over time, and provides incentives to its staff based on these clients’ achievements. Equitas provides incentives to its account officers for including persons with disabilities and measures the progress of its clients along consumption and health indicators. Plan Paraguay and Fonkoze measure the success of their Ultra Poor Graduation programs based on the numbers of clients who “graduate,” having met a comprehensive set of indicators related to food security, income security, asset ownership, school enrollment, housing quality, etc. and having reached a level at which they can use unsubsidized financial services.

Financial inclusion has always been about going where others wouldn’t go, addressing the needs of people who were excluded because it was too hard to serve them, or too risky, or too unsustainable. The people we spoke with represent the many financial pioneers who use innovation to expand the boundaries of inclusion, reaching those assumed to be impossible to reach.

For more on addressing client needs, check out the interactive <a href="http://www.fi2020progressreport.org/">FI2020 Progress Report</a>.

Persons interviewed for this post: Luis Fernando Sanabria, Fundación Paraguaya; Carmen Velasco, co-founder of Pro Mujer; Steve Werlin, Fonkoze, Haiti; Mariella Greco, Plan Paraguay; John Alex, Equitas, India; Arjun Muralidharan, Grama Vidiyal, India; Munnawar Reza, TMSS, Bangladesh.

Image credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/106853342@N04/10666354605/">Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade</a>; Anowara Begoum (pictured) lives in Kazipara village in Bangladesh, and is a participant in BRAC's Special Targeting Ultra Poor Program.

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/09/28/fi2020-progress-report-launches-in-three-days/">FI2020 Progress Report Launches in Three Days!</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/07/21/the-supply-centricity-of-customer-centricity/">The Supply-Centricity of Customer-Centricity</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/08/19/the-ebb-and-flow-of-customer-centricity-in-financial-inclusion-part-one/">The Ebb and Flow of Customer-Centricity in Financial Inclusion - Part One</a>

Addressing the Financial Needs of the Most Excluded

&gt; Posted by Sonja E. Kelly and Misha Dave, CFI

[caption id="attachment_19480" align="alignright" width="350"]<img class="wp-image-19480" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/equitas_pwd_dhanalakshmi-e1442518477325.png" alt="" width="350" height="215" /> Dhanalakshmi (far right), client at Equitas[/caption]

If there is one thing we have learned from working on disability and age inclusion in financial services, it is that including these populations in financial services is in some ways easier than practitioners expect it to be but, in other ways, harder than it looks.

In our research on aging and financial inclusion, one of the key insights was that financial service providers of all sizes often apply age caps on credit products. However, many institutions we talked with did not know exactly where these standards came from. Some attributed them to concerns about life expectancy of older clients, some to institutional history (“that’s just the way we do it”), some to the increase of credit portfolio insurance it would incur, and some to a perception of older people as economically dormant.

Many of these concerns can be mitigated by better research and dispelling myths about the creditworthiness of older people. Easy, right? In fact, there are some institutions that apply creative ideas to providing credit to older people. Group guarantees and automatic withdrawal payments on loans from publicly administered pensions through government partnerships are both examples of this.

However, such institutions providing credit to older people seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Worse, convincing institutions to care about this population is not easy. One institution we spoke with in India was baffled by the idea of providing credit to people over the age of 55. “But [the older people] could die and wouldn’t pay the loan,” the product developers insisted. Doing the research and <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/fi2020/mapping-the-invisible-market/aging-financial-inclusion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">articulating the issue</a> was the easy part — now the hard work begins of advocating on behalf of older people.

Similar attitudinal barriers exist in financial institutions for serving persons with disabilities. Let’s take stock: over one billion people around the world — 1 in 7 of us — have a disability and four-fifths live in developing countries like India. Despite this and the fact that many microfinance institutions (MFIs) claim to be dedicated to “serving the world’s financially excluded people,” less than 1 percent of their clients are persons with disabilities.

In India, disabled persons have limited or no access to formal credit and other financial products for education, housing, skills development, business, and such. In addition, insurance companies in India do not cover assistive technology like wheel chairs and hearing aids that disabled persons need to be mobile, avoid further injury to themselves, and work and live full lives. The gap between demand and supply is enormous, and this creates a dangerous hotbed for informal credit and loan sharks to exploit an already vulnerable and marginalized population, dragging them further into poverty.

Disabled persons and older people have similar physical challenges (mobility, visual, and hearing impairment) and misperceptions about their capabilities to work and run businesses. Therefore, helping to financially include one group will serve to make positive changes for the other. Whether it be through changing attitudes and perceptions or implementing universal design principles in their operations, financial institutions can better serve all clients with physical challenges by becoming disability inclusive and friendly.

Through financial inclusion of disabled persons in India, we see a compelling story of social inclusion at the community level. Leveraging the group-based model in microfinance, disabled persons, mostly women, receive community support and social acceptance from other group members. Dhanalakshmi, an Equitas client, exemplifies this.

Dhanalakshmi was not born blind. She was badly burnt and lost her vision 23 years ago when her husband poured acid over her, her two sisters, and mother. While her sisters recovered with minor injuries, got married, and have families of their own, Dhanalakshmi lost her vision and sustained major burns on her right-hand side. Constrained by her disability, she confined herself to her home for many years.

Four years ago, Dhanalakshmi joined Equitas as a member. She took out a small loan and started her garments business, buying clothes from the wholesaler and selling them door-to-door. Dhanalakshmi’s group has fully included her by using very simple accommodation measures like reciting the MFI pledge aloud and taking turns to assist her in attending meetings. This has given her the confidence and the ability to support herself and her mother financially. Along with economic independence, she has also been socially accepted by people around her.

Group members often help support disabled persons in their businesses, as well. For example, they may purchase raw materials, sell/distribute products, and collect and repay loans on behalf of the disabled client. This inclusion is creating role models by empowering disabled persons to be economically self-sufficient while also empowering communities to break down social stigmas and attitudinal barriers on what a disabled person can and cannot do.

To help further financial inclusion for persons with disabilities, CFI’s <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/programs-a-projects/pwd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Disability Financial Inclusion Program</a> in India has provided trainings and resources to sensitize and equip microfinance institutions to serve this marginalized and underserved population. The program provides disability awareness and sensitization trainings, inclusion assessments, and recommendations to make operations and processes more disability inclusive and friendly.

In the past two and a half years, the program has helped sensitized three microfinance partners (Equitas, ESAF, and Annapurna Microfinance) in three states (Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Orissa). These three MFIs have financially included more than 30,000 low-income disabled persons, including over 2,000 visually impaired individuals, a severely excluded disability segment. Last year, the program won an award for its innovation in promoting accessibility and universal design to “ensure a life of equality and dignity for disabled persons.”

This year, we are expanding to three more financial partners in four new Indian states (Karnataka, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh). One partner organization has a network of 33 sub-partners providing social and as well as financial support, spreading the seed of inclusion across India. We are also developing strategies to expand disability inclusion with our partners and other stakeholders through advocacy and awareness. We are facilitating partnerships between the financial industry and disability organizations in India, many of which provide livelihoods training, skills development, and other social supports to disabled clients. In sum, we are helping provide a strong ecosystem for sustainable financial inclusion for persons with disabilities.

We remain convinced of the value of including persons with disabilities and older people in financial services outreach. Indeed, financial inclusion is a valuable instrument to equip people with the tools they need to manage and grow their income. As we continue to pursue this goal — despite how challenging it can be at times — we eagerly look forward to the day when <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/our-definition-of-financial-inclusion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">all people who can use financial services have access to a broad range of quality financial tools</a>.

This post was also published on the Microcredit Summit Campaign's <a href="http://100millionideas.org/2015/09/18/how-to-be-disability-inclusive-and-age-friendly/">100 Million Ideas blog</a>. Almost a year ago, CFI launched two <a href="http://www.microcreditsummit.org/commitment-makers.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Campaign Commitments</a> for further research and action on the inclusion of persons with disabilities and older people in financial services.

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/09/10/aging-and-financial-inclusion-a-client-protection-issue/">Aging and Financial Inclusion: A Client Protection Issue?</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/04/30/aging-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean-challenge-meets-opportunity/">Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean: Challenge Meets Opportunity</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/08/31/four-interventions-to-help-victims-of-trauma-find-hope-and-dignity/">Four Interventions to Help Victims of Trauma Find Hope and Dignity</a>

How to Be Disability Inclusive and Age Friendly

&gt; Posted by Haset Solomon, Associate, the Smart Campaign, and Sonja E. Kelly, Fellow, CFI

[caption id="attachment_19309" align="alignright" width="250"]<a href="https://infogr.am/copy_aging_and_financial_inclusion"><img class="wp-image-19309" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/infographic-aging.png" alt="" width="250" height="416" /></a> Click for complete and full-size infographic[/caption]

Earlier this year we <a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/02/10/aging-and-financial-inclusion-an-opportunity/">shared</a> a puzzle: microfinance institutions reported that they had age caps on credit products, but we couldn’t figure out what data or rationale was backing them. Leveraging the Smart Campaign’s <a href="http://smartcampaign.org/about/campaign-endorsers">endorser network</a> of over 2,000 microfinance institutions, we set out to get to the bottom of this puzzle. What we found in our survey surprised us.

Consistent with our research in the Financial Inclusion 2020 (FI2020) publication <a href="https://www.metlife.com/assets/cao/foundation/Aging_and_Financial_Inclusion_an_Opportunity.pdf">Aging and Financial Inclusion: An Opportunity</a>, 61 percent of respondents indicated that they have age caps at their microfinance institutions. Indeed, it is common-place for institutions to place age caps on their credit products. The practice is not limited to one country or region - respondents to the survey came from 45 different countries across every region. As we analyzed the survey, we figured there is either a global phenomenon of discrimination against older people or everyone has a very good reason for their actions that we have been missing.

When asked what the age cut-off is at each respondent’s institution, the responses ranged between 55-80 years, and the average age was 65. Our research earlier this year, however, found that this age cut-off is not always consistently applied within each institution. New customers may have an earlier age cut-off, whereas customers with an existing relationship with an institution may be given an additional few years to apply for a new loan.

So, why do institutions impose these age caps on credit products? We received two competing answers:

<ul>
 	<li>“Older people have diminishing health and life expectancy, and this has implications for their income flows.” We heard variations on this theme from about half of those responding to this question. Some were motivated by the national retirement age, with the assumption that after retirement people are not likely to have a steady, dependable, and adequate income to pay back a loan. Others were concerned about older people’s ability to work, thinking that if they were entrepreneurs they may not be as motivated as younger people.</li>
 	<li>“Portfolio insurance does not cover loans to older people, and we refuse to lend to people for whom our insurance is not valid.” Most microfinance institutions take out portfolio insurance that covers their credit portfolio in case of massive default or other major problems. About half of the respondents mentioned insurance as the reason they don’t lend to older people, pointing to the country-level actuarial tables or other data on which insurance companies base their information. Though respondents indicated these resources are outdated in determining an accurate risk profile at particular points in the life course.</li>
</ul>
[caption id="attachment_19312" align="alignright" width="301"]<img class="wp-image-19312" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/word-cloud1.png" alt="Word cloud based on survey responses to the question &quot;Why does your institution have upper-age credit limits in place?&quot;" width="301" height="169" /> Word cloud based on survey responses to the question "Why does your institution have upper-age credit limits in place?"[/caption]

The most surprising finding, however, was one that came out of asking respondents what their personal opinion was on the topic. We asked all survey respondents to voice whether they thought there should be upper-age limits to credit products. The response? Over half of respondents personally disagreed with the practice. Their explanations were enlightening:

“Each person has the right to make a living without any discrimination due to age or disability.”

“Because we can design products for the older-age population.”

“The decision to grant a loan should depend on the appraisal or risk assessment of the client, not his/her age.” 

Smart Campaign endorsers, on average, seem to think that age caps are not ideal or necessary. Older people, just like any other segment of the population, need credit products suited to their needs. We hope this helps to continue the conversation about legitimate assessment of credit risks and credit discrimination of older adults, which is among the fastest growing of any segment of the population.

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/02/20/moving-to-action-on-aging-and-financial-inclusion/">Moving to Action on Aging and Financial Inclusion</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/02/10/aging-and-financial-inclusion-an-opportunity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Aging and Financial Inclusion: An Opportunity</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/04/30/aging-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean-challenge-meets-opportunity/">Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean: Challenge Meets Opportunity</a>

Aging and Financial Inclusion: A Client Protection Issue?

&gt; Posted by Tyler Aveni, Positive Planet China

[getty src="179628484?et=GgCaq6CEQdlJs64RSN4CFA&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=pvS2qjiVTWBxLnLM0IeaSV7Yv2XmXBmACDzG6Frnxjw=" width="594" height="396"]

In an industry that is constantly evolving due to new technology and abundant knowledge-sharing opportunities, practitioners of socially-driven microfinance and inclusive financial services are also helping to drive new innovation. Accompanying research critically assists this process, especially in evaluating the impact of these new methods and initiatives. This presents a problem for countries like China where a dearth of credible (or existing) data resources makes a critical review of practices far harder to manage. As such, researchers interested in the world’s second-largest economy often must settle with statistics that may suffice but rarely meet higher standards found elsewhere.

The work of Li Gan, a Texas A&amp;M professor who also heads the Survey and Research Center for Household Finance at Southwestern University of Finance &amp; Economics (SWUFE) in Chengdu, China, is helping to address the problem. Professor Li has spent much of the last four years spearheading an effort to gather more data on the financial condition of Chinese households and businesses. Through generous funding by SWUFE and support from the PBOC, China’s central bank, Professor Li has set into motion two key multi-year surveys: The China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) and the “ChinaPnR-SWUFE SME Index” which looks at small enterprises.

Prior to the household survey, the main source of data available on household finance in China came from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), a government-sponsored research department. These reported statistics, while comprehensive, are sometimes met with a certain degree of skepticism. Researchers question the integrity of the data collection methods, and some analysts raise concerns about number-tinkering. Any alternative, private surveys were collected on a much smaller scale.

The CHFS is filling the void. Results of the CHFS first began being published in 2012 and are now becoming an increasingly rich and pliable resource for research as additional years of data capture shifts in China’s social and financial landscape. The CHFS started with more than 8,000 households from across mainland China (Tibet and Xinjiang AR excluded) and has been gradually expanded every year. In 2013, some 1,600 SWUFE students were hired and trained to conduct surveys, with the number expected to grow to more than 2,500 for the 2015 survey. Nearly 28,000 households (or 100,000 individuals) are expected to be included in this year’s survey.

Out of approximately 3,000 counties in China, 260 are randomly selected. This selection is then controlled to insure that the sample is both nationally and provincially representative of the population. Within each of these 260 counties, 4 neighborhoods (consisting of villages and communities) are randomly selected. Among the households in the 1,000-plus neighborhoods, between 20 and 50 are randomly selected to be interviewed. The ChinaPnR-SWUFE SME Index works on a very similar system wherein counties and neighborhoods are randomly selected; neighborhood businesses are recorded and then some are randomly selected to participate in the survey.

According to Li Gan, households could be very reluctant to participate but to avoid bias, persistence (i.e. many returned trips) with the support of the local governments and neighborhood committees, has given the CHFS the tools necessary to collect accurate mass-market results. High participation levels (only 11 percent refused to participate in the survey after repeated visits) attest to this earnestness.

Li Gan’s data have shown that wealth is far more concentrated at the top of the socioeconomic pyramid than the NBS figures suggest. It also illustrates that the big picture savings figures are skewed since most of the total dollar amount comes from high income savers.

Interestingly, the survey may also hint at changes in the role of China’s small businesses, since micro-businesses and household finances are often intertwined. In fact, this subset of interest inspired Li Gan and his team of researchers to create the new micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) index  in collaboration with a Chinese technology payment services company, ChinaPnR Limited. Used to capture information about China’s roughly 60 million small unlisted companies, data from the ChinaPnR-SWUFE SME Index has now been collected for more than a year. Government and research bodies have strongly encouraged the program, because, as Li Gan points out, any existing lists on these organizations that are currently available are completely outdated. Mass movements of migrant workers to cities and changing economic conditions have relentlessly re-shaped businesses. New shops crop up daily, and turnover is high.

Li Gan sees both the household and microenterprise survey as crucial for microfinance both directly and indirectly. In his view, policies related to microenterprises or small enterprises could even be affected by the survey results. The data keeps relevant information updated by addressing many important questions like: What is the current demand for loans? How much debt can micro and small businesses afford? What financing channels are currently available? Why do micro-entrepreneurs start their businesses? Do they use internet? How knowledgeable are they with internet technology and other innovation?

Answers to these questions may hold implications for what microfinance institutions offer clients and how they deliver services. In addition to researchers digging into past changes and effects, practitioners and organizations may find that the data hold new insights. In recent years there has been a move to holistically evaluate client needs and rethink product and services design to become more appealing for new and existing clients, which in turn, also benefits the institution. This approach, coined “human center design” (HCD) stands to benefit from data, such as the CHFS and SME indexes, which may serve as a broad platform to improve practices and their core offerings.

As of a July 1 update on the CHFS research center’s website (which oversees both surveys), results of the MSME index were officially <a href="http://www.chfsdata.org/detail-26,28-109.html">released</a> last month on June 26. Updates and new results will be published quarterly, with plans made for at least an additional 5-10 years of data collection for both the MSME and household finance indices. As is the case with the CHFS, this data is planned to be made freely available as a public asset for the research community.

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2014/01/07/ratings-to-loosen-the-regulatory-noose-on-chinas-microcredit-companies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ratings to Loosen the Regulatory Noose on China’s Microcredit Companies</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/01/06/the-role-of-microfinance-ratings-in-the-sustainable-development-of-chinas-financial-inclusion-sector/">The Role of Microfinance Ratings in the Sustainable Development of China's Financial Inclusion Sector</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2014/10/27/gender-dynamics-in-rural-china-illuminate-the-need-for-financial-education/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gender Dynamics in Rural China Illuminate the Need for Financial Education</a>

&nbsp;

New Surveys Fill Data Void in China’s Microfinance Industry

&gt; Posted by Center Staff

<a href="http://newsfeed.financialinclusion2020.org/"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-18655" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/fi2020-issue-five.png" alt="fi2020 issue five" width="614" height="329" /></a>

Good afternoon! Freshly published is this week’s Financial Inclusion 2020 News Feed, sharing the big news in banking the unbanked. Among its stories are a new partnership between MetLife Foundation and Opportunity International to expand financing and skills training in rural China, the launch of a World Food Programme initiative that integrates climate risk reduction with financial services, and the release of the first annual Consumer Banking PACE Index, which gauges bank performance to consumer expectations. Here are a few more details:
<ul>
 	<li>MetLife Foundation and Opportunity International have embarked on a three-year partnership to support thousands of small businesses in rural China with financial services and business development training via banks, mobile vans, and rural service centers.</li>
 	<li>The World Food Programme launched the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative, which helps smallholder famers in Zambia navigate environmental demands using index-based agricultural insurance, improved natural resource management, credit, savings, and productive safety nets.</li>
 	<li>The new Consumer Banking PACE Index, drawing on input from over 9,000 consumers, examines bank performance in a handful of countries around the world to conclude that, among other findings, fair and transparent pricing falls below consumer expectations, and trust in banks remains an issue.</li>
</ul>
For more information on these and other stories, read the fifth issue of the FI2020 News Feed <a href="http://newsfeed.financialinclusion2020.org/">here</a>, and make sure to subscribe to the weekly online magazine by entering your email address in the right-hand menu so you can be notified when the latest issue comes out.

Have you come across a story or initiative you think we should cover? Email your ideas to us at <a href="mailto:ezuehlke@accion.org">ezuehlke@accion.org</a>.

&nbsp;

Rural Finance in China, Climate Risk Reduction, Meeting Consumer Expectations – the Latest FI2020 News Feed

Gift Mahubo

Kwashie Agbitor

Mozambique

Sub-Saharan Africa

East Asia and Pacific

Indonesia

Kenya

Nigeria

Access Usage Gap

Aging and Older Adults

Challenges and Crises

Credit

Delivery Channels

Digital Credit

Digital Financial Services

Enabling Environment

Financial Service Providers

Financial Technology

Fintechs

Human Centered Design

MSME/SME Finance

Payments

Rural Populations

Smallholder Farmers

Underserved Groups

Women

Entrepreneurs of MSMEs

Impact Investing

Responsible Investing

Social Impact Metrics

Trends

Consumer Protection

Customer Centricity

Data Analytics

Equity Investing

Financial Health

Governance

Product Pricing

Resilience

Responsible Digital Finance

Risk Management

Supply Chain Finance

Article

Podcast

[caption id="attachment_27543" align="alignright" width="251"]<img class=" wp-image-27543" src="https://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Elisa-Cecilia-Paruque-Lowe-1-e1674737435286-633x1024.jpg" alt="Elisa Cecilia Paruque Lowe, a small business owner and Socremo customer, during a difficult time" width="251" height="406" /> Caption: Insurance relieved financial burdens for Elisa Cecilia Paruque Lowe, a small business owner and Socremo customer, during a difficult time[/caption]

Life throws unexpected changes our way. For most low-income individuals and households, those changes can be extremely costly, especially for those that are uninsured. Low-income households typically lack social safety nets, so when an unexpected event or expense arises, the financial impacts are very challenging to navigate. Insurance helps alleviate the cost of serious life events, like illness, job loss, or the death of a loved one, but for many in this group, these policies seem unattainable and only for the elite.

Accion partner <a href="http://www.socremo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Socremo</a> has low-income people and entrepreneurs in Mozambique for more than two decades. A leading microfinance bank based in Maputo, Socremo identified funeral coverage as one of the most important needs of its customers. Socremo took the opportunity to leverage this insight into creating a product that would help their customers relieve one of their biggest burdens — bearing significant funeral costs for their loved ones. In Mozambique, funerals are a major event with great cultural significance that carry many additional costs beyond the money spent on burials. Bereaved families bear the costs of organizing and hosting relatives and community members, sometimes depleting family savings or forcing them to draw down on money from their small businesses to cover costs.

With support from the <a href="https://scbf.ch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Swiss Capacity Building Facility</a>, we worked with Socremo to refresh its savings product, Vitamina, and bundle it with a funeral insurance benefit. Building on the success of an existing credit life insurance product, Socremo worked to provide funeral benefits to existing loan customers and, with time, extended this benefit to its savings account holders. A key feature of the revamped savings product is a “balance multiplier,” which pays out double the savings account balance in the event of death of the customer.

The team used human-centered design to test and iterate the product, refine processes, uncover new channels, and incorporate customer feedback at every stage to refine the final product. We documented the experience and learnings in our latest report, “<a href="https://www.accion.org/unlocking-the-benefits-of-embedded-insurance-for-micro-and-small-businesses" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Unlocking the benefits of embedded insurance for micro and small businesses: Insights from Mozambique</a>.” 

Launching the new and improved Vitamina savings product and attracting more customers was not without challenges. However, the eventual increase in customers using the product and its new funeral insurance benefit is clear proof that financial service providers have an important role to play in supporting customers throughout the product adoption journey: by investing in the right infrastructure, researching customer needs, and leveraging partnerships.

Socremo customers are already realizing the positive impact this product has on their livelihoods. Elisa Cecilia Paruque Lowe, a widow, saw the value of insurance during a time of distress. Elisa recounted, “The amount I received really helped as I did not get family support and resorted to taking money from my business. With this insurance money, the negative impact on my business was reduced.”

Read Accion’s <a href="https://www.accion.org/unlocking-the-benefits-of-embedded-insurance-for-micro-and-small-businesses" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">full report</a> on the benefits of embedded insurance and bundling products to achieve scale.

This report was developed with support from the <a href="https://scbf.ch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Swiss Capacity Building Facility</a>.

Insurance gives low-income families financial stability in Mozambique

In Indonesia, small business retailers often struggle to have enough cash to buy inventory, and banks typically don’t want to give loans to these merchants. Host <a href="https://www.accion.org/bio/amee-parbhoo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amee Parbhoo</a> talks with Mir Haque, founder and CEO of <a href="https://fairbanc.app/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fairbanc</a>, about how Fairbanc provides a better opportunity to the mom-and-pop retailers through a technology platform that integrates with corporate partners to embed a simple inventory financing solution.

Mir shares why their end customers are in need of embedded finance solutions, no matter their digital capabilities. Mir also explains how Fairbanc mitigates risk effectively and seamlessly, and how they secure partnerships with consumer goods corporations. Finally, Mir gives advice for entrepreneurs looking to establish B2B partnerships for their businesses.

To learn more about Venture Lab, visit our <a href="https://www.accion.org/how-we-work/invest/accion-venture-lab" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">website</a> and follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/accionvlab" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Twitter</a>.

<a href="https://link.chtbl.com/BA4kFjsa" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Listen here</a>.

<img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-26427" src="https://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Accion-Haque-Quotecard2-1024x576.png" alt="Accion-Haque-Quotecard2" width="1024" height="576" />

Making Mom-and-Pop Shops More Economically Sustainable with Embedded Financing

The majority of Kenyans have mobile money accounts; their activity demonstrates digital financial services’ potential. Accion helps Kenyan innovators harness emerging technologies to create new financial services.

Though Nigeria’s government has set ambitious goals for financial inclusion, the majority of its people lack a formal bank account. Accion has worked in the country since 2007 to expand access to financial services.

[embed]https://soundcloud.com/accioninternational/the-pandemic-provides-lots-of-new-problems-for-entrepreneurs-to-solve-fields-michael-moreland[/embed]

“The COVID pandemic has exposed risks embedded throughout the health system,” reflects Michael Moreland, co-founder and CEO of Field Intelligence, a tech-focused pharmaceutical supply chain company operating in Nigeria and Kenya. As the COVID-19 pandemic caused an increase in essential drug prices across Africa, Michael and his team took fast action, doing “everything [he] could to help [customers] keep [their] business open and working safely.” In an uplifting seventh episode of <a href="https://www.accion.org/series/venturekast-rebuild" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">VentureKast: Rebuild</a>, Michael explains how critically important Field Intelligence’s data-driven Shelf Life product has been to mitigate volatility in the price and supply of essential drugs, and how the COVID-19 pandemic poses a massive opportunity for entrepreneurs to solve challenges within public health systems. In the wake of the pandemic, “health-seeking behavior [has changed] broadly as more and more patients avoid the clinical setting… and instead go to that pharmacy on the corner.” As people turn to community-based health care solutions for their basic care, Field has leveraged their reach with local pharmacies and distributed hundreds of hand washing stations and educational posters to protect against the spread of the virus at a local level.

“The urgency of [improving the lives of vulnerable populations] has never been more clear” as drug price volatility, coupled with lockdown measures and a collapse of household income, leaves many in a desperate situation. Michael reckons that investors and entrepreneurs alike will respond with solutions to problems that have become apparent. While “[Investors] will naturally turn to those essential critical services like community-based health care as the kinds of place where there is a tremendous opportunity to improve, create value, [and] participate in that value chain,” the pandemic “provides new problems for entrepreneurs to think about solving” — an opportunity which Michael believes will change the future of the health care supply industry.

Please join our host and co-managing director of <a href="https://www.accion.org/how-we-work/invest/accion-venture-lab" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Venture Lab</a> <a href="https://www.accion.org/bio/vikas-raj" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Vikas Raj</a> as he interviews industry leaders every Thursday about how COVID-19 is impacting their work.