Financial Inclusion & Beyond

We’re excited to share a special episode in partnership with our colleagues in the San Francisco Fed’s Community Development group. Our teams recently collaborated on a special issue of the Community Development Innovation Review in partnership with the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security program, which examined the potential ways financial technology can promote racial equity in the financial system. Today’s episode features audio from the journal’s live launch event.

In the final episode of Financial Inclusion & Beyond, your series hosts take a look back at key themes and takeaways from our conversations.

Our Pacific Exchanges team recently hosted a special Financial Inclusion and Beyond live virtual event moderated by Sean Creehan, the team’s lead for financial health and inclusion, that explored lessons from around the world in the use of technology and public policy to build more inclusive financial systems and drive financial health. Regular listeners of the podcast will recognize these voices from their episodes throughout the season; the live virtual event allowed them to discuss how they were managing the challenges to inclusion posed by the COVID pandemic.

In episode nine of Financial Inclusion & Beyond, we spoke with Grovetta Gardineer, the Senior Deputy Comptroller for Bank Supervision Policy at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. We discussed lessons learned from the COVID crisis, financial inclusion challenges here in the United States, as well as the role public policy and regulation should play.

In episode eight of Financial Inclusion & Beyond, we spoke with Tracy Basinger, the recently retired head of supervision at the San Francisco Fed. We get into examples of innovations promoting inclusion and challenges for regulators and who want to minimize risks while not getting in the way of positive change. And we talk about shifting from a historical mindset focused on preventing exclusion to one that thinks about promoting financial health and wellbeing.

In episode seven of Financial Inclusion & Beyond, we spoke with Matt Homer, Deputy Commissioner of the Research and Innovation division of the New York State Department of Financial Services. We get into the benefits of inclusive technology, but also the potential for digitization to exclude some vulnerable populations and the unexpected challenges policymakers and firms face in delivering new financial services to people that previously lacked access.

In episode six of Financial Inclusion & Beyond, we spoke with Chris Calabia, the Senior Advisor for Supervisory and Regulatory Policy, Financial Services for the Poor, at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We sat down to discuss how to drive financial health for the world’s poor by improving access to essential financial services through better public policy and regulation.

In episode five of Financial Inclusion & Beyond, we spoke with Ting Jiang, a behavioral economist who researches and designs products for behavioral change. At the time of this recording, which took place before the pandemic, Ting was associated with Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight. We sat down to discuss the way behavioral scientists and product designers work together to build better financial products that help people take action to improve their financial health.

In episode four of our series Financial Inclusion & Beyond, we spoke with José Quiñonez, the founding chief executive officer of Mission Asset Fund (MAF). José talked to us about how MAF is helping those that have typically been left out get integrated into the formal financial system. MAF is drawing on the rich tradition of lending circles to help the low-income and immigrant communities develop a credit history and join the financial system.

In episode three of Financial Inclusion & Beyond, we spoke with Arjuna Costa, managing partner of Flourish Ventures, a leading social impact fund focused on financial health. Arjuna invests in entrepreneurs around the world to catalyze innovations that help people achieve financial health. We sat down to discuss the way entrepreneurs are harnessing the power of behavioral economics and customer-centric design to meet the everyday financial challenges of low income populations.