Don’t bank the underbanked

The natural implication of the term “unbanked” or “underbanked” is the absence or underutilization of a bank.  The assumption is that un- or underbanked people should become banked.  While this will be true for some, I believe that a majority of the 60 million underbanked people in the US will…

Good Well

Where’s our next James Gutierrez (in NYT) or Patrice Peyret?  Calling rock-star entrepreneurs who are determined to improve the lives of the underbanked. Our fund is a “double bottom line” venture fund.  This means we execute against two goals: to make excellent financial returns and to demonstrate we’re investing in…

Goals, Inc

When thinking about how to improve the lives of the underbanked, many gravitate towards financial literacy.  Sadly, most of it has proven ineffective.  Others seek to make policy and regulatory changes.  While this can yield meaningful scalable impact, there are often unintended consequences in our niche (e.g. capping interest rates…

Amex Enters Prepaid

“Loaded with Benefits. Not Fees” their online ads read.  The bank and card network, which traditionally serves higher net worth and business clients, is moving downstream to reach to the underbanked mass market, they say, by introducing a general purpose reloadable prepaid card (GPR, in the jargon) last week.  It’s…

And the Winner is…. GoalMine

Over 600 underbanked missionaries, mercenaries, bankers, regulators, entrepreneurs, investors CEOs and middle-managers descended upon New Orleans last week.  Together, they represent the single most qualified and discriminating judge of what is hot and what is not in our sector.  After watching live demonstrations and Twitter-guided Q&A with the finalists in our Core Underbanked…

RIP APR

We all love to get piping mad about how terrible and predatory pay-day lenders are with rates – annual percentage rates (APR) – of 400%, 500% and up.  It sounds unconscionable, doesn’t it? I believe APR is an inflammatory and completely ineffective way to evaluate or understand short-term loans.  APR stifles innovation;…