The Global Findex Database 2017


Book Description

In 2011 the World Bank—with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—launched the Global Findex database, the world's most comprehensive data set on how adults save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. Drawing on survey data collected in collaboration with Gallup, Inc., the Global Findex database covers more than 140 economies around the world. The initial survey round was followed by a second one in 2014 and by a third in 2017. Compiled using nationally representative surveys of more than 150,000 adults age 15 and above in over 140 economies, The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution includes updated indicators on access to and use of formal and informal financial services. It has additional data on the use of financial technology (or fintech), including the use of mobile phones and the Internet to conduct financial transactions. The data reveal opportunities to expand access to financial services among people who do not have an account—the unbanked—as well as to promote greater use of digital financial services among those who do have an account. The Global Findex database has become a mainstay of global efforts to promote financial inclusion. In addition to being widely cited by scholars and development practitioners, Global Findex data are used to track progress toward the World Bank goal of Universal Financial Access by 2020 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The database, the full text of the report, and the underlying country-level data for all figures—along with the questionnaire, the survey methodology, and other relevant materials—are available at www.worldbank.org/globalfindex.




Finance With A Purpose: Fintech, Development And Financial Inclusion In The Global Economy


Book Description

From vehicles to music, power generation to retail, every aspect of our daily routine has experienced drastic changes in the recent past, driven by secular forces such as digitization, a growing focus on sustainability, regulatory changes and evolving consumer behavior. Financial services are no exception. A paradigm change is at play in the financial sector, with a surge in competition from non-traditional actors, a revolution in customer experience evidenced by rising transparency and customer-centric strategies. FinTech is disrupting financial services, providing a historic opportunity for formally underserved customers, a formidable threat to existing banks and a critical challenge to regulators. Through the lens of FinTech (financial technology) — including payments, lending platforms, insurtech, superapps and market infrastructure — the author highlights the practical policy opportunities and risks of financial inclusion with a wealth of data.This book tells the story of entrepreneurs, companies, investors, researchers and regulators who are building the financial services of tomorrow and the mechanisms that will allow us as a society to fulfill the promise of inclusion. There are still challenges to overcome, particularly high levels of informality, subpar quality in financial services, and low levels of financial education. Regulators play a crucial role to foster inclusion, proposing sandboxes and stepping up their efforts against risks triggered by technology such as monopolistic behavior, consumer protection and cybercrime.Finance with a Purpose combines the theory in the fields of economics, finance and law with the practice of financial institutions, corporates, households and investors. By combining the latest academic research with ample professional experience in emerging markets, this book is essential for policymakers, scholars, and any reader who wants to understand the recent progress in financial inclusion and how it can be used to alleviate inequality and foster economic development.




Lending a Hand


Book Description

In the financial services industry, especially in the wake of the financial crisis, there has been a call for financial institutions to employ their capital for positive impact. While banks have traditionally worked to maximize value for shareholders, this movement has sparked interest in alternative banking models that incorporate social and environmental values. There are numerous names for this view of banking, among them, values-based, regenerative, ethical, sustainable, social, alternative, development and solidarity banking. Many values-based institutions have smaller, more local footprints when compared to traditional banks, which makes them well-suited to lend to small and medium-sized businesses (“SMEs”). While SMEs are a vital component of any local economy, they often face challenges obtaining credit from traditional banks. There is an opportunity for values-based lenders to provide credit to SME borrowers that are unserved or underserved by traditional lenders, and in doing so support the social, environmental, and economic sustainability of local communities. This thesis explores the current state of values-based lending to SMEs in Toronto, Canada. The Toronto financial market is dominated by a handful of large domestic banks; however, there is a gap between the credit requirements of SMEs, and what the traditional banking market is willing and able to supply. The author concludes that values-based lenders serve an important role in the Toronto SME lending market, filling numerous gaps left by traditional banks. These lenders are able to employ more qualitative, subjective and relationship-based methods in credit risk assessment and lending decisions.




Bank Lending in the Knowledge Economy


Book Description

We study bank portfolio allocations during the transition of the real sector to a knowledge economy in which firms use less tangible capital and invest more in intangible assets. We show that, as firms shift toward intangible assets that have lower collateral values, banks reallocate their portfolios away from commercial loans toward other assets, primarily residential real estate loans and liquid assets. This effect is more pronounced for large and less well capitalized banks and is robust to controlling for real estate loan demand. Our results suggest that increased firm investment in intangible assets can explain up to 20% of bank portfolio reallocation from commercial to residential lending over the last four decades.







Congressional Record Index


Book Description

Includes history of bills and resolutions.




Democratizing Finance


Book Description

Decades before Occupy Wall Street challenged the American financial system, activists began organizing alternatives to provide capital to “unbankable” communities and the poor. With roots in the civil rights, anti-poverty, and other progressive movements, they brought little training in finance. They formed nonprofit loan funds, credit unions, and even a new bank—organizations that by 1992 became known as “community development financial institutions,” or CDFIs. By melding their vision with that of President Clinton, CDFIs grew from church basements and kitchen tables to number more than 1,000 institutions with billions of dollars of capital. They have helped transform community development by providing credit and financial services across the United States, from inner cities to Native American reservations. Democratizing Finance traces the roots of community development finance over two centuries, a history that runs from Benjamin Franklin, through an ill-starred bank for African American veterans of the Civil War, the birth of the credit union movement, and the War on Poverty. Drawn from hundreds of interviews with CDFI leaders, presidential archives, and congressional testimony, Democratizing Finance provides an insider view of an extraordinary public policy success. Democratizing Finance is a unique resource for practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and social investors.




The Color of Money


Book Description

“Read this book. It explains so much about the moment...Beautiful, heartbreaking work.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates “A deep accounting of how America got to a point where a median white family has 13 times more wealth than the median black family.” —The Atlantic “Extraordinary...Baradaran focuses on a part of the American story that’s often ignored: the way African Americans were locked out of the financial engines that create wealth in America.” —Ezra Klein When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than 1 percent of the total wealth in America. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. The Color of Money seeks to explain the stubborn persistence of this racial wealth gap by focusing on the generators of wealth in the black community: black banks. With the civil rights movement in full swing, President Nixon promoted “black capitalism,” a plan to support black banks and minority-owned businesses. But the catch-22 of black banking is that the very institutions needed to help communities escape the deep poverty caused by discrimination and segregation inevitably became victims of that same poverty. In this timely and eye-opening account, Baradaran challenges the long-standing belief that black communities could ever really hope to accumulate wealth in a segregated economy. “Black capitalism has not improved the economic lives of black people, and Baradaran deftly explains the reasons why.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “A must read for anyone interested in closing America’s racial wealth gap.” —Black Perspectives