Improving Access to Financial Services
News from Ford
26 April 2012Grantee Offers Guidelines for Excellence in Financial Services
More than 60 million people are not well served by the U.S. financial services industry: They lack accessible, affordable products and services to manage their money in the short term while building assets for the future. To help the industry take the lead in addressing this challenge, the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI)—the nation’s leading authority on financial services for underserved consumers, and a Ford grantee—has released a set of guidelines for creating financial services that improve consumers’ lives.
The guidelines, called the Compass Principles, articulate a vision of financial services that is grounded in an understanding of what consumers need and want, and in a desire to meet those needs safely, responsibly and sustainably. They provide a framework to evaluate new and existing products, and to ensure that available products are high quality and benefit both the consumer and financial institution. They encourage the financial services industry to be proactive, creative and customer-focused when designing products and services.
The principles are already being put into action. Plastyc and Core Innovation Capital, both financial services companies that serve underbanked consumers, are the first to complete CFSI’s application process and finalize a Compass Commitment pledge. “We believe financial services have a significant role in anyone’s upward mobility, and millions of responsible, hard-working Americans are stuck in a vicious cycle where their financial tools erode, instead of enhance their net worth and financial capabilities,” said Arjan Schütte, managing partner at Core Innovation Capital, explaining his company’s involvement. “CFSI’s Compass Principles initiative is a bold and critical effort to set a standard for how financial services can and should function for people.”
The Ford Foundation believes that improving access to affordable and responsible financial products and services is an important step to help poor and low-income households build and maintain assets.
Through our Improving Access to Financial Services initiative, the foundation provided funding, along with the Omidyar Network, to help develop The Compass Principles. Learn more about the initiative’s U.S. Strategy.
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