To live in today's world, you need money; yet the majority of people do not have access to it. The formal financial system is taken for granted, but it also represents the barrier to financial inclusion. This book highlights 13 game changers - including social enterprises like Grameen, Aflatoun and Kiva - who are thinking outside of the financial box. These organizations are acting on behalf of the excluded people that are unable to live their lives to the fullest. They are seeking to revolutionize the financial sector and aiming for financial inclusion for all. In analysing the innovative and inclusive solutions of these game changers, the book delivers vital lessons through a framework of five key levers for change in order to reimagine our financial system. Awareness and support for a more sustainable and inclusive world has never been higher and financial inclusion is a key element of this global issue facing modern society today.

This book addresses the gaps in the present institutional structure of inclusive finance framework in India. It provides a comprehensive review of the role of banks in financial inclusion policy and micro-finance landscape in India at present. It identifies the key issues within the banking system which prove to be obstacles in the way of achieving financial inclusion and sustainable growth. The book conceptualizes inclusive banking, delves into the theoretical foundations thereof and suggests an institutional framework to avoid overlapping of their functions in order to ensure profitability. It reviews the existing market structure and competition in the inclusive finance arena while considering the role of banks, micro-finance institutions and SHGs in financing the poor. The book proposes a distinct change to the existing business model, examines the bank business model for inclusion and how the banks can and should treat the micro lending clientele as their core client base to counter the issues of profitability and competition in today’s banking sector. It also discusses some of the latest initiatives in inclusive finance and the importance of entrepreneurship development experiments in India and their efficacy in comparison with the micro-lending model.

In today's world, financial inclusion has emerged as a critical tool for fostering inclusive economic growth and achieving sustainable development goals. The Role of Financial Inclusion for Reaching Sustainable Development Goals presents a comprehensive exploration of the subject, offering a vital resource for anyone seeking to grasp the intricacies of this dynamic and evolving field. This book assembles a collection of cutting-edge research on financial inclusion, featuring contributions from diverse contributing authors with expertise in various aspects of finance and economics. The volume is structured to examine the main trends and challenges surrounding financial inclusion, while shedding light on its implications for different economies and societies. From the determinants of financial inclusion to its effects on economic agents, financial institutions, and entire economies, each chapter delves into crucial questions, exploring both the theoretical and empirical aspects of the topic. By examining the challenges and implications of financial inclusion in an international context, this book emerges as a relevant and timely reference for policymakers, academics, and financial professionals alike. This book emphasizes the broader social and political impact of financial inclusion, discussing its correlation with issues such as gender inequality, education expenses, health expenses, access to water and sanitation, environmental inequality, and energy needs.

Money from Nothing explores the dynamics surrounding South Africa's national project of financial inclusion—dubbed "banking the unbanked"—which aimed to extend credit to black South Africans as a critical aspect of broad-based economic enfranchisement. Through rich and captivating accounts, Deborah James reveals the varied ways in which middle- and working-class South Africans' access to credit is intimately bound up with identity, status-making, and aspirations of upward mobility. She draws out the deeply precarious nature of both the aspirations and the economic relations of debt which sustain her subjects, revealing the shadowy side of indebtedness and its potential to produce new forms of oppression and disenfranchisement in place of older ones. Money from Nothing uniquely captures the lived experience of indebtedness for those many millions who attempt to improve their positions (or merely sustain existing livelihoods) in emerging economies.

Technology is rapidly changing the way we think about money. Digital payment has been slow to take off in the United States but is displacing cash in countries as diverse as China, Kenya, and Sweden. In Reimagining Money, Sibel Kusimba describes the rise of M-Pesa, and offers a rich portrait of how this technology changes the economic and social landscape, allowing users to create webs of relationships as they exchange, pool, borrow, lend, and share digital money in user-built networks. These networks, Kusimba argues, will shape the future of financial technologies and their impact on poverty, inclusion, and empowerment. She describes how urban and transnational migrants maintain a presence in rural areas through money gifts; how families use crowdfunding software to assemble donations for emergency medical care; and how new financial groups invest in real estate and fund weddings. The author presents fascinating accounts that challenge accepted wisdom by examining the notion of money as wealth-in-people—an idea long-cultivated in sub-Saharan Africa and now brought to bear on the digital age with homegrown financial technologies such as digital money transfer, digital microloans, and crowdfunding. The book concludes by proposing a new theory of money that can be applied to designing better financial technologies in the future.

The call for establishing a right to bank holds valid premises, yet this right has never been contemplated before. The book argues that introducing a right to bank under international law can offer a new route to ensure that the banking sector acts as a force for good like ethical banks currently do. The right to bank aims to address the fundamental issues that customers can experience while dealing with banks, introducing the paradigm: “get access; be respected; trust the system”. The right to bank is a right for everyone: in the transition from a financial crisis to a climate crisis, it empowers individuals to play an active role in the financial system through ethical and sustainable decision-making. It also stimulates financial institutions and governments to reflect about the fundamental role they play and to act wisely in furthering the ecological transition. The book therefore presents a proposal for establishing a right to bank, explaining the issues that this right aims to address, the benefits linked to its adoption, and the intended change it can trigger. Within this context, the author also presents the 10 Principles of Banking Social Responsibility, a new framework that the author decided to create in order to give concrete traction to the positive transition that the banking sector crucially needs to embrace in this challenging historical moment. This innovative work will be valuable for lawmakers, banking and finance professionals and researchers, governments and NGOs, including UN bodies.