Over the December holidays, I was visiting family in India, and despite everything you read about rapid economic development and the expanding middle class, the poverty so many people experience there is still striking.  However, the poverty I saw this time looked very different than what I’ve seen in previous trips.  People still live in flimsy shacks, but now they have televisions in those shacks.  In the big cities, mobile phones are everywhere.  In the past, large populations of the “unbankable” seemed completely out of the reach of traditionally structured financial institutions.  These days, in countries like India, large bands of the population can be served through channels that were never an option before, like the mobile phone.   Read More »

Most recently, I’ve been exploring the Future of Retail Banking (upcoming posts will preview the Council’s predictions). Through my work, I learned that it is important to have a firm understanding of today’s realities in order to gain a window into the future.  One reality that has become increasingly clear to me is that banking is becoming a social right rather than a privilege. Just see a few examples of “banks” that are bringing a social purpose to financial services: Read More »