My partner in crime, Jennifer Tescher, who runs the Center for Financial Services Innovation, is leading a bold movement to increase quality in consumer finance. High time! Here’s what she has to say: Given the high level of consumer confusion and distrust, the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) set out in…
2012 Underbanked Innovators Challenge Finalists
We received many nominations for the best innovation serving the underbanked in America. Mostly startups, but also some big companies, including banks. Mostly payments, but also credit, savings and financial capability solutions. Mostly true innovations, but also quite a few doozies. Our judges looked for true innovation, demo-ability, and also…
Are you up to the Core Challenge?
We want to shine a spotlight on the most innovative teams serving the underbanked. You could be an app developer in a dorm-room in Beloit, WI or work for one of the largest financial technology companies on earth. If you have built a product or service that works (or will…
Banks: Don’t bank the underbanked; bank businesses that serve them well
Reposted from BAI’s Banking Strategies: Banks have struggled serving the un- and underbanked for decades. By definition, one wonders how banks can ever serve the unbanked. Even so, to date, it seems that a majority of bank efforts to capture more customers from both segments falls into two categories that…
You Suze, you don’t lose: Approval for the Approved Card
Suze Orman today announced her new Approved Card, because in her words (and inflection), “You. Can. Always. Bank. On. Me.” The card is the latest in a long line of prepaid cards, a relatively new financial instrument that functions basically like a checkless checking account, needn’t be marketed by a bank, offers…
Welcome Green Dot Bank
On Freedom Boulevard in Provo, Utah, nestled between the mountains of Uinta National Forest and Lake Utah is a nice little one-branch bank, pictured above. It looks innocent enough. Its CEO, Doug Christensen, invites personal emails from his home page. Ping him quickly, as I assume he’s soon out of a…
Not Unbanked: Untapped. Underserved spend $45B on financial services
Most believe the underserved are large in numbers and small in market potential. Of course micro lenders around the world, such as Nobel laureate Grameen Bank, who serve the poor with small, market rate “business” loans have demonstrated it’s big business – and largely, good for the world. But here…
Is Financial Innovation an Oxymoron?
Since I started writing at Forbes, I’m unclear what to do with my “own” blog. So, for today, I’m reposting. If you have a better idea, let me know. The week before last I attended a show-and-tell event for adults in the crevice of the financial industry that calls itself…
In the Black, underbanked report from New Zealand
In proper American form, I arrived in New Zealand clueless it is hosting the Rugby World Cup in two weeks – a massive event boosting a level of national excitement akin to the FIFA or the Olympics – and excited to check out how it handles its unbanked and underbanked,…
The ol’ “Money In” Problem
Jack Dorsey just raised $100 million at a valuation of $1 billion for his new startup, Square, which allows smart phones to act as merchant credit card swipers. Western Union charges a pretty dime to accept cash and move it elsewhere. Green Dot’s reload network accounts for roughly one third of its…