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> Posted by Julia Arnold, Financial Inclusion Consultant
If I ask you to picture an American who is financially vulnerable, what do you see? Do you see someone living from paycheck to paycheck? Someone who patronizes a payday lender or car title lender? Perhaps a family struggling to decide which bill to pay at the end of each month? Someone with a high school degree working a few part-time, low-wage jobs? And how many people do you think fit into this category in the U.S.? Twenty percent? Thirty percent?
What if I were to tell you that in fact nearly half of Americans report that they could not come up with $400 in an emergency? That’s about 150 million people – a number so large you’re bound to know at least one person in this group. Financial insecurity or vulnerability isn’t just a concept discussed among development professionals looking to support a microfinance institution in Kenya or India; in the U.S., it’s a reality for millions of our neighbors and friends. Those living in perilous economic existences are not just the people we imagined above. The financially vulnerable are hiding in plain sight.
> Posted by Jeffrey Riecke, Communications Specialist, CFI
Over the past few decades, across demographics and regions, the proportion of people in the United States with bank accounts has increased steadily, a new report from the White House details. More specifically, the report found that between 1989 and 2013: the percentage of U.S. households with bank accounts increased from 86 percent to 93 percent; the percentage of households in the bottom income quintile with bank accounts increased from 56 percent to 79 percent; among racial minorities, the percentage of households with bank accounts increased from 65 percent to 87 percent; and regional disparities have diminished, with financial inclusion increasing across all geographies. All of this progress in financial services access warrants acknowledging, of course, yet there remain sizeable gaps toward financial inclusion that call for immediate action.
For example, like most countries that enjoy high access rates, many banked Americans remain underserved. Twenty percent of households in the U.S. with bank accounts also rely on alternative/informal financial services. In 2013, roughly 5 percent of unbanked or underbanked households turned to payday loans, the White House report found. Indeed a few weeks ago we spotlighted new proposed regulation from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to rein in the growing high interest rate/fee-laden payday loan and short-term credit markets.
The United States also ranks dismally when it comes to financial literacy. In the S&P Global FinLit Survey, it was determined that 57 percent of the American population is financially literate, which puts the country at 14th globally, according to the S&P.
> Posted by Danielle Piskadlo, Manager, Investing in Inclusive Finance, CFI
As we say goodbye to April, I reflect on the month that since 2004 has been recognized as Financial Literacy Month by the U.S. government and that also brings us Equal Pay Day, which was originated by the National Committee on Pay Equity in 1996. To celebrate and learn more about these topics, I attended two events in Boston: a talk hosted by Budget Buddies, a financial literacy coaching program for women, and an Equal Pay Day event hosted by Massachusetts Treasurer Deborah Goldberg. I was struck by a few pertinent themes that ran through both events.
1. Gender Gaps. Financial literacy is low in the U.S. and worldwide according to The Wall Street Journal: “Only 57 percent of Americans passed a basic financial literacy test, according to one recent global survey; in another survey, teens in the U.S. ranked between those of Russia and Latvia. Around the world, meanwhile, just one-third of adults are considered to be financially literate.”
However, there is also a gap between genders in financial literacy – 5 percent on average worldwide (35 percent for men, 30 percent for women) and 10 percent in the U.S., according to Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services Global Financial Literacy Survey.
> Posted by Center Staff
What does it mean to be financially literate?
According to the newly released Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services Global Financial Literacy Survey, it’s about having a basic understanding of some key financial concepts: inflation, interest rates, compound interest, and risk diversification. The survey was conducted in 2014 as part of the Gallup World Poll, with research support from the World Bank Development Research Group and the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center at George Washington University.
Five questions were asked to 150,000 adults in more than 140 countries, including the following:
Suppose you need to borrow $100. Which is the lower amount to pay back: $105 or $100 plus three percent?
Think you know the answer?
Well, 40 percent of U.S. adults got that question wrong (or said they didn’t know). The right answer, of course, is $100 plus three percent.
Globally, two-thirds of adults were not considered financially literate according to the survey – defined as getting the questions on three of the four concepts correct. As expected, literacy rates in high income countries are higher (55 percent of adults in the G7 countries overall “passed” the test). In most countries, women scored worse than men – overall about 5 percent worse. A number of other predictable gaps are evident: more educated, higher income, and more financially included people score higher than the less educated, poorer, and financially excluded. But there are many, many people out there who are using formal financial products without being able to pass this simple test.
These results are clearly disappointing. But what are they telling us?
> Posted by Jayshree Venkatesan, Financial Inclusion Consultant
The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) Indian national financial inclusion strategy was launched with much fanfare exactly a year ago by the government. As we pass the first year anniversary, there have been a number of reports that indicate that the program is not as successful as claimed, either in reaching the poorest of the poor, or in preventing dormancy of accounts. The World Bank’s latest Global Findex study says the number of people accessing a formal bank account in India increased from 35 percent in 2013 to 53 percent in 2014. The same study also indicates that India is among the countries with the highest percentage of dormant accounts at 43 percent, meaning the PMJDY accounts that have been opened have a high likelihood of becoming dormant.
The idea of opening bank accounts to financially include the poor is by no means a novel idea, and has been tried in various forms over the past decade in the Indian context. While there have been challenges with access, I argue the bigger issue is account dormancy. In India, it’s often the case that after access is extended, accounts remain dormant, which results in high costs for banks. This in turn tends to add to the perception that the poor are unbankable and supports a vicious cycle with bad behavior by bankers to dissuade poor customers.
My research across 368 households in four districts in Tamil Nadu, a state that has fairly high literacy rates, social security programs, and access to bank branches, indicates that awareness about the PMJDY remains low at 16 percent of the households surveyed. If this is the scenario in a state like Tamil Nadu, it is safe to say that the situation is far worse in states that have lower bank branch penetration and social indices.
> Posted by Sonja E. Kelly, Fellow, CFI
Financial Inclusion 2020 (FI2020) is a global multi-stakeholder movement to achieve full financial inclusion, using the year 2020 as a focal point for action. This blog series will spotlight financial inclusion efforts around the globe and share insights from key thought leaders in financial inclusion, with a specific focus on quality beyond access.
Tuesday marked a historic day for Peru: the country launched its National Financial Inclusion Strategy. While Peru has been lauded in the past for its environment for financial inclusion, its public-private sector partnerships, and its leadership in conversations on international banking standards, this national strategy elevates Peru’s commitment to financial inclusion to a new level. In particular, we want to celebrate the strategy’s commitments to consumer protection, financial literacy, and the inclusion of vulnerable people.
Analysis of the World Bank Global Findex this year revealed that countries that have a national strategy (not merely a commitment or stand-alone programs) for financial inclusion saw twice as much bank account access growth in the last three years compared to countries that did not have a national strategy. For Peru, this is great news, as according to the same data source, less than 30 percent of adults in the country had access to an account in 2014.
The path to financial inclusion articulated in the strategy, however, is not focused on access to accounts, making Peru an outlier among its peers that have implemented national strategies. Instead, Peru has oriented its strategy toward improving systems for accessing a range of products and promoting supportive consumer protection, financial education, and attention to the most vulnerable. The national strategy has seven different lines of action: Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Lindsey Tiers, Communications and Operations, the Smart Campaign
According to a recent article in The New York Times, a number of lenders seem to have adapted General Douglas MacArthur’s views on government regulation: “Rules are mostly made to be broken.” Research conducted on the effectiveness of the U.S. government’s Military Lending Act over the past few years has illustrated that “lenders, intent on offering loans regardless of the federal restrictions, devised loan products that fell squarely outside the loan’s restrictions.” When interest rate caps were limited to loans of up to $2,000, lenders started offering loans for $2,001. When protections were applied to auto-title loans with terms under 181 days, loan periods were extended to just over 181 days.
The Obama Administration is suggesting an expansion of the law in order to close some of the loopholes, but will more rules truly deter predatory lenders? Regulators might find themselves overburdened with a multitude of rules and a decreasing ability to enforce them. A few well-supervised regulations seem preferable to a tangled web of unenforceable ones. Additionally, it would be foolish to underestimate the innovative abilities of those intent on making a buck from those in the military, based on the case precedents we’ve seen.
Even when the law does actually catch up to bad actors, there is evidence that they can go out again with the same or similar practices. Julio Estrada, a used-car dealer featured in an earlier article in The New York Times on subprime auto lending, continued to dupe customers into accepting predatory loans for several months after he was “indicted by the Queens district attorney on grand larceny charges that he defrauded more than 23 car buyers with refinancing schemes” less than a year earlier.
Predatory lending to military personnel is made easy because military salaries are largely transparent. Lenders have near perfect knowledge of just how much a servicemember desperate for cash can afford in monthly payments. The reliability of a government paycheck has fostered the creation of systems that withdraw installments before income even reaches a servicemember’s account, further minimizing the risk to lenders and increasing their relative advantage. Yet the most egregious imbalance in knowledge stems from the fact that lenders know the “military considers personal indebtedness to be a threat to national security, so high levels of debt can imperil service members’ security clearances,” and ultimately their job. Predatory lenders leverage this knowledge to threaten servicemembers.
Perhaps instead of relying on regulation, and hoping that everyone plays by the rules, we should refocus our efforts on adequately arming our servicemen and women with the knowledge they need to defend themselves. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took steps to do just that when it created the Office of Servicemember Affairs to focus on the challenges faced by military employees. However, it primarily addresses ways to save, funding for higher education, and accessing VA benefits, and only touches on indebtedness in a section on deployment and credit cards. While educating servicemembers on these issues is important, increasing savings and controlling the interest charged on credit card bills are ways to preempt debt, and might not necessarily be relevant for someone already in debt. These individuals are most likely to fall prey to abusive payday lending schemes.
> Posted by Eric Zuehlke, Web and Communications Director, CFI
With 1.2 billion people, youth between the ages of 15-24 represent approximately 18 percent of the global population, and 87 percent of youth live in developing countries. Yet only 44 percent of 15-to-24-year-olds have an account at a formal financial institution globally compared to 55 percent of adults.
Last week, I had the privilege of moderating a panel discussion on youth financial inclusion, hosted by Credit Suisse and organized by the Microfinance Club of New York. The presenters shared important examples of what has worked in providing financial education and services to youth. Joining me were:
- Barbara Magnoni, President of EA Consultants and co-author of CGAP’s “Analyzing the Business Case for Youth Savings“
- Maria Perdomo, YouthStart, Programme Manager, UNCDF
- Scott MacMillan, Communications Manager, BRAC USA
- Simon Bailey, Head of Learning, Research, and Network, Aflatoun
- Nathan Byrd, Head of Education Finance, Opportunity International
Recently, our Financial Inclusion 2020 team worked with Making Cents International to look at the barriers to and drivers of youth financial inclusion. We found that the primary reasons that youth cite for not having an account at a formal institution are a perceived lack of money, the high costs of services, and challenges in having proper identification. In addition, youth often feel that their financial assets or businesses are too small to work with a bank, especially in situations in which the costs of getting to a bank are high.
Despite these challenges, there are a few areas of opportunity. One is the business case. Since financial needs of young people grow in volume and sophistication over time there is a business case for serving them even as their financial needs are initially limited. Serving youth can help build a longer-term and loyal clientele if products are appropriate and financial capability is fostered. Another important area is financial education/capability. Establishing financial literacy early in life will help foster positive financial habits and lead to longer-term asset accumulation and higher credit scores. This needs to take place in a regulatory environment that supports financial inclusion and coordination among various players.
These three areas – the business case, financial capability, and the policy perspective – were the focus of much of the discussion at the event. I noticed that a few themes cut across the presentations:
> Posted by Zahra Khalid, Social Analyst, Pakistan Microfinance Network
Pakistan’s financial sector is due for some client-centric changes. Over the past decade there has been rapid growth in consumer lending as well as an increase in the number of households that have taken on risks and obligations that they do not fully understand due to unfair and deceptive practices coupled with low levels of general and financial literacy.
These trends make the World Bank’s recently released industry-wide diagnostic review of the state of consumer protection and financial literacy in the country all the more relevant, and its recommendations targeting irresponsible practices, such as inadequate price disclosure, gender-based discriminatory lending practices, and lack of dispute resolution mechanisms, increasingly important. Offering key findings, recommendations, and comparisons against World Bank-developed best practices, the review is the first to cover the country’s legal, institutional, and regulatory framework from the consumer protection angle.
> Posted by Alexa Roscoe, Private Sector Advisor, CARE International UK
The Financial Inclusion 2020 project at the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion is building a movement toward full financial inclusion by 2020. Accordingly, this blog series will spotlight financial inclusion efforts around the globe, share insights coming out of the creation of a roadmap to full financial inclusion, and highlight findings from research on the “invisible market.”
CARE International promotes microinsurance as part of the range of services and products that the poor need to help overcome poverty and reduce their vulnerability to shocks. However, we also know that as with all products, to be sustainable, any microinsurance model also needs to be profitable. Fortunately for the insurance industry and its clients, it’s being demonstrated that increasing profit and promoting financial inclusion do not have to be mutually exclusive. New research from our work in India shows that microinsurance distribution strategies that prioritize building clients’ financial literacy lead to almost three times as many new enrollments as those that do not.
There are a number of substantial challenges in marketing and distributing microinsurance products. Frequently, it is less a matter of marketing a product than building a new market from scratch, often in remote, hard-to-reach areas, with a client group without access to formal financial services. These factors make the costs of marketing to, distributing to and servicing clients disproportionate to the resulting margins. A number of strategies are being piloted globally to circumvent these challenges. For example, building off of growing mobile penetration rates among developing country populations, one initiative bundles an insurance product with the purchase of a SIM card. While this requires a lower initial investment, the jury is still out on the long-term value of such products. Unless clients receive thorough product education, such “blended approaches” might hinder awareness of the insurance product, as well as re-enrollment and the building of any brand loyalty.
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