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;…
Underbanked Inspire a Wealth of Services
My friend and colleague, founder and CEO of CFSI, Jennifer Tescher, writes a monthly column for the American Banker. This month it was on the Core Challenge (see my previous post), available here for those with a subscription. For those who don’t, here’s a long excerpt, and my encouragement to…
The Core Challenge Finalists
A couple months ago we announced the first Core Underbanked Innovation Challenge for the most innovative new products serving the unbanked and underbanked in America. Since our fund is the premiere venture fund targeting innovation for this segment, it seemed like a logical thing to do. Much to our…
Let’s Finovate
The last couple days at Finovate San Francisco have been fun. The conference – focused on one-track, demo-only, 7 minute limit presentations by any financial technology company willing to spend a couple grand to hawk their wares to assembled gaggle – is getting big enough, as Brian McLoughlin pointed out,…
Don’t forget, the “underbanked” are actually real people.
My partner in underbanked crime (no pun intended), CFSI’s Innovation Meister Rachel Schneider, has been thinking about real people. Oddly enough, we all do that too little. Besides, this is a very cool project. Behold: It can be hard to understand why 30-40 million households in the U.S. use non-bank…
Rockin’ the Grove
Everyone always thinks of financial education as the panacea to the “Underbanked Problem.” “Just teach them how things work,” they say. Of course, most financial literacy projects are well-intended nonsense for people who actually know a lot about financial services, but with a different set of needs and cultural norms…
APIs for LMIs – open source for the underbanked
The financial industry is a closed industry. In order to become a prepaid program manager, even, I have to sign a deal with a bank, which has signed a deal with Visa or MasterCard. I have to marshal IT resources and stand in line to get a processor to accommodate…
In Defense of Grameen’s Yunus
My friend David Bornstein wrote an excellent article in the New York Times in defense of the embattled Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. Yunus started Grameen Bank in the ’70s and today is the largest microlender on Earth, serving millions of poor people in one of the poorest countries on Earth…
Core Underbanked Innovation Challenge
My fund, Core Innovation Capital, is excited to announce a prize for the best, most innovative financial services product serving the unbanked and underbanked in the US. At stake: national notoriety, main stage exposure and $10,000. Check it out: http://challenge.corevc.com So many people and companies are putting their very best into creating…
Prepaid Banks (Post Prepaid Expo)
A month ago BB&T launched a prepaid account, a GPR program targeting the underbanked. It sports a $10 monthly fee (half that if you deposit $1k/mo) and free cash deposits from any branch or via the Visa ReadyLink Network. Several banks have approached Green Dot about managing GPR programs for them.…