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The Financial Access Initiative (FAI) is a research center based at NYU Wagner focused on substantially expanding access to quality financial services for low-income individuals. The Initiative aims to provide rigorous research on the impacts of financial access and on innovative ways to improve access.
The Initiative was launched with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and American International Group, Inc. to the NYU Wagner Graduate School. Research by FAI researchers is also supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, The World Bank, CGAP, and other organizations.
Financial access refers to the ability of all people to use reliable and convenient financial instruments to manage their finances and grow their wealth.
Studies show that there is a strong negative correlation between the degree of access to finance in a country and the level of poverty in fact the World Bank goes as far as to say that access to finance is not simply correlated to poverty levels but is actually a driver of poverty eradication. Anecdotally, we can see that without good financial services, those with very little lack the best means to invest what they have productively or to cope with the major shocks that inevitably accompany and exacerbate poverty.
Over the past quarter century substantial strides have been made to increase the access of poor households to quality financial services. Increasingly, we see financial institutions offering innovative and profitable products that reach ever poorer and more challenging segments of populations. And yet still, scores of people; in some countries 80 to 90 percent of their populations are excluded for mainstream services.
To expand financial access process and product innovations, regulatory reforms, and expanded financial intermediation are all required. While key decision-makers are eager to move forward, holes in their knowledge slow their steps.
The Financial Access Initiative conducts substantive research on what works and
what doesn't work to open access and uses this research to inform the policy
decisions necessary to rapidly scale up financial access for the under-served
poor. Most of the research involves collecting data about the conditions and
opportunities of poor households.
FAI will work with decision-makers to identify critical knowledge gaps and then
undertake substantive research to fill these gaps. In many cases, this requires
re-visiting academic debates with new data and putting evidence into
conversation with new ideas from economics, psychology, and sociology. Opening
up questions and placing knowledge in the right hands are critical steps in
enabling more of the poor to exit poverty.
The Initiative has three main activities, each aimed at increasing policy-relevant knowledge on expanding access to finance:
Jonathan Morduch, Managing Director
Phone: (212) 998-7536
www.financialaccess.org

Click here to view the data on "Half the World is Unbanked" from Financial Access Initiative paper
03/21/2012
How the Other Half Lives: Financial Planning on $2 a Day
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Jonathan J. Morduch in The Atlantic
Press
03/09/2012
Dollar benchmark: The rise of the $1-a-day statistic
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Jonathan J. Morduch in BBC News
Press
More New/Press01/11/2012
Does Financial Literacy Alone Lead to Good Financial Decisions?
News
01/09/2012
McGraw-Hill Research Foundation White Paper Calls for New Approach to Creating Effective Financial Literacy Programs
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Jonathan J. Morduch and Barbara Kiviat [Fellow] in MarketWatch
Press
05/24/2011
FAI Researching How Low-Income Americans Use Financial Products [Video]
News
11/03/2010
Students taking it straight to the media
News
11/02/2010
Global Experts Offer First Look at New Research on Microfinance
News
05/28/2010
Join FAI for a Virtual Conference on Reimagining Microfinance around the World
News
02/08/2010
Financial Access Initiative research on the unbanked cited in House testimony
News