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Bank of America

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Citigroup

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An American Bankers Association panel of experts predicted much slower economic growth, but agreed that the U.S. economy will avoid a recession over the next couple of years.

Bruised by recent public relations gaffes, the buy now/pay later pioneer is forging ahead with a plan to complement its installment loans with a physical Visa card.

The credit union’s members are disproportionately targeted by cybercrime. Password managers are critical to helping them protect themselves, said data security chief Mike Newborn.

Risky loan applications had been on the rise for more than a year, according to the analytics firm CoreLogic. Now that activity is slowing down, lenders face a higher risk of fraud, and many could be ill-equipped to handle it.

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Training

From paying for lawn care when an Army Reservist on staff was deployed to offering employees office space and laptops for their children to do school work, United Bank in Alabama aims to make life easier for the people who work there. It is also ramping up internal training programs.

Congress is expected to pass the SAFE Banking Act by year-end in one way or another. Bankers can learn a thing or two from others who have already taken the plunge.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has isolated the nuclear power from much of the Western economy, worsening already fraught global supply chains and increasing uncertainty. But it can still get worse.

Ian Khan, futurist and author of the forthcoming book "Metaverse for Dummies," shares a vision of virtual workplaces where young developers, designers and other talented staffers will want to meet.

One reason: lack of digital IDs, say Mary Ellen Iskenderian of Women’s World Banking and Janet Truncale of EY.

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Increased access to telehealth visits. Cash incentives to get vaccinated. Bring your dog to work — every day. These credit unions, though still providing traditional team-building fun and games, have taken extra steps this year to cater to the needs of employees.

The bank has developed Slingshot, a data management tool for customers of data company Snowflake, within its new business unit Capital One Software.

Japan became one of the first major economies to introduce a legal framework around stablecoins, the cryptocurrencies thrust into the global spotlight by last month’s collapse of the TerraUSD token.

By Taiga Uranaka and Yuki Hagiwara, Bloomberg News

June 3

Though costly, Wednesday’s settlement brings the $11.2 billion-asset company a step closer to resolving legal and regulatory issues that have hampered it since 2019.

Total direct compensation for the chief executives at large and midsize banks rose by 21.5%, up from a 5% increase in 2020, according to a new analysis. Strong earnings growth and a hot stock market were key factors.

Citigroup may record losses of at least $50 million following a London staffer’s fat-finger trade that caused a flash crash in European stocks last month, according to people familiar with the matter.

By Sridhar Natarajan, Jenny Surane and Swetha Gopinath, Bloomberg News

June 2

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Webinar

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Traditional financial institutions can no longer afford to ignore cryptocurrencies and digital assets

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Green is the new gold and when it comes to climate change, what banks need to be digging for is data

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Goldman Sachs

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About Us

Overview

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a leading global financial institution that delivers a broad range of financial services across investment banking, securities, investment management and consumer banking to a large and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and individuals. Founded in 1869, the firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world.

Our Purpose and Values

We advance sustainable economic growth and financial opportunity. Our purpose comes to life through our four core values: Client Service, Excellence, Integrity, and Partnership.

People and Leadership

Our people are our greatest asset – we say it often and with good reason. It is only with the determination and dedication of our people that we can serve our clients, generate long-term value for our shareholders and contribute to the broader public. Learn more about Our People, Diversity and Inclusion, and our Business Principles and Standards.

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We deliver a broad range of financial services across investment banking, securities, investment management and consumer banking to a large and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and individuals.

Our Products and Services

Across our divisions, digital platforms, and services, our clients and customers have access to the resources and reach of a unified global firm to help them achieve their goals.

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We work with clients to achieve investment goals and financial well-being and bring an innovative approach to traditional consumer banking activities.

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We provide investment management solutions across all major asset classes to a diverse set of institutional and individual clients.

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Our Global Investment Research division provides original, fundamental insights and analysis for clients in the equity, fixed income, currency and commodities markets.

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Our people are our greatest asset – we say it often and with good reason. It is only with the determination and dedication of our people that we can serve our clients, generate long-term value for our shareholders and contribute to the broader public.

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JP Morgan Chase

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Morgan Stanley

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Morgan Stanley Newsroom | Morgan Stanley

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board of governors of the federal reserve system

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The Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington DC.

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FDIC: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

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Commercial Banking

Helping Your Business Grow.

We provide industry expertise and a personalized approach to banking, so you can be confident that we will deliver the solutions to help your business grow and compete. Whether you are looking to expand or renovate, NCB has the products and services to help you meet the challenges of business ownership.

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National Cooperative Bank. Working Together. Building Community.

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Commercial Banking We provide industry expertise and a personalized approach to banking, so you can be confident that we will deliver the solutions to help your business grow and compete. Whether you are looking to expand or renovate, NCB has the products and services to help you meet the challenges of business ownership.

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At the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance we study alternative finance, including financial channels and instruments that emerge outside of the traditional financial system.
Read more about us

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Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance

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At the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance we study alternative finance, including financial channels and instruments that emerge outside of the traditional financial system. Read more about us

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Celebrating Our 10-Year Anniversary

We are a national impact finance and advisory nonprofit. By working with public, private, and social sectors, we create partnerships and investments to measurably improve lives. Since our founding in 2011, we have mobilized over $350 million in new investments designed to help 45,000 people realize measurable outcomes in education, economic mobility, health, and housing, partnering with more than 600 organizations.

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Social Finance is a national impact finance and advisory nonprofit. We work with the public, private, and social sectors to create partnerships and investments that measurably improve lives. In the past decade, we have mobilized over $350 million to help more than 45,000 individuals realize better education, economic mobility, health, and housing outcomes.

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Native CDFIs are proven and promising partners that make a positive difference in Indian Country successfully and sustainably.

Native CDFIs are building equitable economies in Native communities by opening doors to loans, extending credit to thriving businesses, generating good jobs, and expanding access to new opportunities.

They build trust, strong community relationships, and self-determination to help Native communities overcome challenges of accessing credit and building assets created by economic systems that have harmed them or ignored their needs.

Bringing Dreams to Life for Multiple Generations

Native CDFIs understand the unique assets and needs of Native communities and cultures, respecting their perspectives and honoring their histories. This is what makes Native CDFIs capable of establishing a powerful infrastructure for economic and cultural wealth that is built to last.

Enabling Native Communities to Thrive in the Face of Historic Impacts

To invest for prosperity in Native communities, successful financial services need to reflect traditional values, guided by the wisdom to plan for multiple generations.

The services must also account for the impact of history. The systemic racism, violence, and exclusion that began in these lands centuries ago continues today-resulting in traumas, financial instability, and other barriers that make it harder for the communities we partner with to thrive on their own terms.

Native communities are relentlessly resilient. Businesses have fought to create jobs and give back. Workers have generated cash and employment in places without a main street or a bank to support them. More entrepreneurs and families need access to capital that's tailored to their culture and way of life.

Native CDFIs understand this need and are experts in serving, responding, and delivering results successfully. Their practical know-how builds upon the wealth of wisdom in Native communities and the need to heal. They connect investors to Native businesses with a respect for history, culture, and context that helps communities thrive for the long term.

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Native Community Development Financial Institutions - Native CDFIs

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Native CDFIs are proven and promising partners that make a positive difference in Indian Country successfully and sustainably. Native CDFIs are building equitable economies in Native communities by opening doors to loans, extending credit to thriving businesses, generating good jobs, and expanding access to new opportunities.

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Financial inclusion means that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs - transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance - delivered in a responsible and sustainable way.

Being able to have access to a transaction account is a first step toward broader financial inclusion since a transaction account allows people to store money, and send and receive payments. A transaction account serves as a gateway to other financial services, which is why ensuring that people worldwide can have access to a transaction account continues to be an area of focus for the World Bank Group (WBG). Most notably, it was the focus of the World Bank Group's Universal Financial Access 2020 initiative, which concluded at the end of 2020. Though many gains were made through this initiative, it is an indicator of the scale of the challenge that still more work remains to be done.

Financial access facilitates day-to-day living, and helps families and businesses plan for everything from long-term goals to unexpected emergencies. As accountholders, people are more likely to use other financial services, such as credit and insurance, to start and expand businesses, invest in education or health, manage risk, and weather financial shocks, which can improve the overall quality of their lives.

The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has also reinforced the need for increased digital financial inclusion. Digital financial inclusion involves the deployment of the cost-saving digital means to reach currently financially excluded and underserved populations with a range of formal financial services suited to their needs that are responsibly delivered at a cost affordable to customers and sustainable for providers.

Great strides have been made toward financial inclusion and 1.2 billion adults worldwide have gotten access to an account between 2011 and 2017. As of 2017, 69% of the world's adults had an account. Digital financial services - including those involving the use of mobile phones - have now been launched in more than 80 countries, with some reaching significant scale. As a result, millions of formerly excluded and underserved poor customers are moving from exclusively cash-based transactions to formal financial services using a mobile phone or other digital technology to access these services.

Moving from access to usage of accounts is the next step for countries where 80% or more of the population have accounts (China, Kenya, India, Thailand). These countries relied on reforms, private sector innovation, and a push to open low-cost accounts, including mobile and digitally-enabled payments.

However, close to one-third of adults - 1.7 billion - were still unbanked in 2017, according to the latest Findex data ( 2021 data forthcoming).About half of unbanked people included women poor households in rural areas or out of the workforce.

Between 2011 and 2017 gender gap in account ownership remained stuck at 9 percentage points in developing countries, hindering women from being able to effectively control their financial lives. Countries with high mobile money account ownership had less gender inequality. The impact of the COVID-19 on this gender gap remains to be seen.

Since 2010, more than 55 countries have made commitments to financial inclusion, and more than 60 have either launched or are developing a national strategy. Countries that have achieved the most progress toward financial inclusion have:

Policies delivered at scale, such as universal digital ID - India and Aadhaar / JDY accounts - more than 1.2 billion residents covered

Leveraged government payments. (For example, 35% of adults in low income countries receiving a government payment opened their first financial account for this purpose.)

Allowed mobile financial services to thrive. (For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, mobile money account ownership rose from 12% to 21%.)

Welcomed new business models, such as leveraging e-commerce data for financial inclusion

Taking a strategic approach by developing a national financial inclusion strategy (NFIS) which bring together diverse stakeholders including financial regulators, telecommunications, competition and education ministries

Paying attention to consumer protection and financial capability to promote responsible, sustainable financial services

When countries take a strategic approach and develop national financial inclusion strategies which bring together financial regulators, telecommunications, competition and education ministries, our research indicates that when countries institute a national financial inclusion strategy, they increase the pace and impact of reforms.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2022

The World Bank Group plays a critical role in advancing financial inclusion in the world since it can leverage its financial sector expertise, country engagement and dialogue, financing and risk-sharing instruments, unique datasets and research capacity, and influence with standard-setting bodies and the G20.

We have developed an integrated and unified approach in our work to help countries achieve financial access and responsible financial inclusion, which focuses on 5 intertwined pillars:
1. Pillar 1: National Financial Inclusion & Fintech Policy and Strategy
Financial inclusion spans a wide range of topics and stakeholders. FICP activities under Pillar 1 focus on providing holistic assessments and strategies for financial inclusion, providing assistance to clients on how to approach financial inclusion, with increasing focus on digital financial inclusion and leveraging fintech to promote financial inclusion, in a comprehensive and systematic manner and how to align across a range of different actions to work towards achieving the broader goal of financial inclusion.

Technical offerings under pillar 1 include:

· Financial Sector Assessment Programs (FSAPs): These assessments, conducted in collaboration with IMF, systematically examine levels of access to finance (including through digital means), sustainability and diversity of providers (including innovative providers), the range of appropriate products currently available in the market, and national policies and programs with respect to financial inclusion.

· National financial inclusion strategies (NFIS): This is technical assistance to design and implement national or subnational roadmaps and action plans to achieve financial inclusion objectives, including through digital financial services.

· Data Infrastructure and Measurement: This is support to develop data infrastructure and measurement systems for financial inclusion, including via national demand-side financial inclusion surveys, supply-side data collection to support measurement towards financial inclusion strategy targets, geospatial mapping initiatives for financial inclusion and KPI development, as well as approaches to measure digital financial service / Fintech related data for financial inclusion purposes, particularly for providers that fall outside of traditional regulatory perimeters.

· Women and Finance: tools to address the issue of women and financial inclusion.
2. Pillar 2: Financial Products and Providers for Underserved Segments
Activities under pillar 2 focus on direct technical assistance to implement policy reforms specific to products or providers that benefit underserved segments, including women and rural populations.

Technical offerings under this pillar include:

· Innovative products focused on the underserved: Technical assistance on expanding the range of products appropriate for the underserved individuals and MSMEs, by helping clients conduct demand-side research to better inform design and delivery of appropriate products and services for the rural underserved.

· Innovative providers focused on the underserved. Technical assistance on enabling the entry and operation of innovative providers that serve underserved individuals and MSMEs through assessment of new providers and developing enabling regulatory frameworks and supervisory activities that are proportionate to their scope and type of activity.

· Strengthening Strengthen competition and expand access points: support on regulatory and supervisory reforms to open up access and ensure level playing field for banks and non-bank (or non-traditional service providers), such as telecoms companies, "fintech" firms, post offices, cooperatives and agent networks.
3. Pillar 3: Financial Consumer Protection
Financial consumer protection is a critical complement to financial inclusion, in order to ensure that financial inclusion benefits consumers (especially those consumers new to the formal financial sector) and does not expose them to potential harm. We provide technical assistance in full range of consumer protection topics including disclosure, market conduct supervision, data protection and dispute resolution.

Technical offerings under pillar 3 include;

· Financial consumer protection diagnostics: Comprehensive diagnostics in financial consumer protection, assessing existing legal and institutional frameworks and market practices against the Good Practices for Financial Consumer Protection.

· Institutional arrangements: technical assistance on strengthening institutional mandates for financial consumer protection, advising on institutional arrangements and coordination mechanisms across financial sector authorities working on financial consumer protection.

· Financial consumer protection legal framework: technical assistance in drafting financial consumer protection regulation to cover the full range of FCP issues (e.g. regarding FSPs' conduct, disclosure, internal complaints handling etc.), whether via product- or provider-specific regulation or umbrella FCP regulation.

· Market conduct supervision: technical assistance on market conduct advising on the development of supervisory strategies, manuals, and reporting templates and providing supervisory training, risk assessment frameworks.

· Disclosure and transparency: technical assistance in drafting disclosure regulation; designing key facts statements for an increasing range of products (e.g. consumer credit, current accounts, insurance, collective investment schemes), and conducting consumer testing of key facts statements, as well as adapting disclosure and transparency for DFS (e.g. digital disclosure).

· Fair treatment and business conduct regulation: technical assistance and tools in the areas of product governance and suitability, as well as in appropriate policy approaches to address over-indebtedness.

· Accessible and effective channels for alternative dispute resolution (ADR): technical assistance on ADR mechanisms, including advising on legal frameworks for ADR schemes (e.g. jurisdiction, legal powers), establishing ADR schemes (e.g. governance, funding arrangements, structure, staffing), and providing trainings on ADR operations and processes.

· Data privacy and protection: technical assistance tools to help countries apply existing principles to the financial sector, with adaptations to address new risks posed by fintech and DFS such as risks related to big data, alternative credit scoring, discrimination, consent, algorithmic governance, etc.
4. Pillar 4: Financial Capability and Behavioral Insights
Financial capability is the internal capacity to act in one's financial interest, given socioeconomic and environmental conditions. It encompasses the knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors of consumers with regard to managing their resources and understanding, selecting and making use of financial services that fit their needs.

The FICP team leverages insights from research on financial capability and behavioral economics and provide strategic advice to authorities on how to approach financial capability and use financial capability to make financial inclusion efforts more effective through targeted actions that complement programs, reforms and regulations including those related to consumer protection.

Technical offering under this pillar include:

· Identifying large-scale opportunities to incorporate financial education messages into existing programs and interventions to improve financial outcomes of target populations, especially where these are critical populations for financial inclusion objectives (such as recipients of social transfer programs or programs focused on women's access to finance)

· Financial capability interventions to complement policy reforms and regulations related to financial inclusion, digital finance and fintech, consumer protection and related topics

· Support to national authorities to develop a strategic approach to financial capability reflecting behavioral insights and best practices, as part of a broader strategic approach to financial inclusion and digital finance
5. Pillar 5: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSMS) Finance
Policymakers often lack efficient processes to monitor data on the supply of credit to MSMEs. The lack of realistic definitions for MSMEs, combined with the complexity and heterogeneity of the segment, make MSME finance very elusive to monitor. This limits the capacity of regulators to identify market gaps as well as "overheated" segments which may signal risks for stability. The FICP team provides technical tools to policymakers to conduct supply-side diagnostics on a systematic basis, not as a one-off analysis of the market, but as a comprehensive process to identify risks and gaps in the market and to communicate the results to other stakeholders.

In addition to these five pillars, our work also focuses on payments and payment systems as means of furthering financial inclusion. This includes the following:

- Modernizing retail payment systems and government payments to help countries design strategies to promote the use of electronic payments, instead of cash and paper-based instruments. Many countries are successfully digitizing government payments by shifting all government-to-person payments into accounts, which typically lowers costs and increases financial access. It also leads to significant cost savings in the administration of payment schemes, as well as to reduced leakages related to corruption and fraud.

- Reforming national payments systems (NPS), including remittance markets: conduct comprehensive diagnostics of countries' payments and settlement systems, including remittance markets, and make recommendations to improve NPS.

Our work on financial inclusion also underpins the institution's efforts in other development areas, including shifting social transfer payments from cash to digital, support to SMEs and agriculture, and the World Bank Group's Identity for Development (ID4D) initiative.

It is also interwoven into other institutional initiatives, including:

The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) which focuses on removing financial and non-financial constraints for women small-business owners.

The Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) Initiative to support Africa's efforts toward building inclusive and sustainable digital economies.

Work in IDA countries as part of the IDA19 framework on women's financial inclusion.

Globally, we engage with standard-setting bodies, help shape standard-setting initiatives and convene forums.

G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI): The World Bank Group is an implementing partner of the GPFI, an inclusive platform for all G20 countries, interested non-G20 countries and relevant stakeholders to work on financial inclusion. Under the China G20 Presidency leadership, the World Bank Group helped develop the G20 High Level Principles (HLPs) for Digital Financial Inclusion, and provided technical input to the New G20 Indicators for the Digital Financial Inclusion. The eight High Level Principles encourage governments to promote a digital approach to financial inclusion, and are being used as a reference tool by many countries. The principles catalyze cross-government actions to drive financial inclusion through digital technologies, and also help ensure that consumer interests are at the forefront of policy concerns, emphasizing consumer protection and financial literacy.

Payment Aspects of Financial Inclusion (PAFI) report outlines seven guiding principles and suggests actions countries can take to advance access to transaction accounts. It was prepared by a financial regulator task-force chaired by the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and the World Bank Group.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2022

As of June 2016, active financing operations to support national authorities to improve financial inclusion have been over $5 billion in commitments. We've also developed new guidance, diagnostic tools, data, and research to enable more effective national policy, regulatory, and supervisory frameworks. Since June 2012, our work has reached more than 70 million people, microenterprises and SMEs with financial services.

Through IDA17, the World Bank Group committed to supporting at least 10 IDA countries in achieving[BB1] national commitments/targets to financial inclusion, which was met and surpassed. Since demand outstripped the original target, a total of 16 IDA countries, nine of which are in sub-Saharan Africa, were identified for Bank Group support to help meet national financial access and inclusion commitments. Eleven of those 16 countries now have new or expanded World Bank Group-financial access/inclusion projects. These projects include comprehensive programs of technical, knowledge, and financial support to design and implement National Financial Inclusion Strategies, as well as to support transformational reforms and investment in innovative payment services, digital finance, micro/SME finance, responsible finance and related areas.

Our work compliments the efforts of other entities within the World Bank Group that also focus on financial inclusion:

IFC, the World Bank Group's private-sector investment arm, works to advance financial inclusion through its engagement with financial institutions and intermediaries.

Also, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a global partnership of 34 leading organizations housed at the World Bank, works to advance financial inclusion through responsible market development and advocacy to increase access to financial services for the poor.
Country examples:
Indonesia established a new National Financial Inclusion strategy in August 2016, and in the last couple of years has undertaken various financial inclusion reforms to develop the culture of savings, strengthen the existing credit guarantee scheme and community empowerment schemes, improve financial infrastructure and payment systems, increase access to insurance, and enhance financial literacy.

The Bank Group is working with the country on reforms to expand financial access and digitize payments (including social transfers), expand access points, strengthen the regulatory and supervisory environment, and raise the population's financial awareness and capability.

Mexico: In June 2016, Mexico launched its national financial inclusion strategy to accelerate access to financial services for more than half of the population currently left out of the formal and regulated financial system. The Bank Group is helping the country strengthen financial sector oversight, foster credit and expand financial inclusion.

Mozambique: With support from the World Bank, Mozambique launched a new financial inclusion strategy in July 2016, designed to increase access to financial services from 24% to 60% of the population by 2022.

Pakistan: The World Bank is supporting country-led efforts with reforms and other actions to expand financial access and inclusion. The Bank Group's support has enabled Pakistan to strengthen its banking system and increase private sector participation.

Peru: The country's national financial inclusion strategy, formulated with the Bank's assistance and launched in 2015, committed the government to ensure that at least 75% of adults have access to a transaction account by 2021.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2022

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Half of the adults around the world - around 2.5 billion people - don't use formal financial services, and 75% of poor people are unbanked because of costs, travel distances and burdensome requirements involved in opening a financial account. While the poor don't have the same access to financial products, their need for financial services may be even greater.

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