2018 Azbee Awards of Excellence

Category

Online > Web Feature Series > Northeast

Awarded to

Alan Kline, senior editor; Kevin Wack, reporter; Bonnie McGeer, executive editor

Entry details

Redefining financial inclusion

Issue date (if applicable): 5/1/2017
Publication name: American Banker
Publishing company: SourceMedia
Website home page: http://www.americanbanker.com

Please describe the publication's mission and readership:

American Banker is the essential resource for senior executives in banking and financial services, keeping its users updated on vital developments and focusing sharply on their most important concerns — innovation, transformation, and disruption; technology, regulation, and reform. Financial industry professionals turn to American Banker, every day and throughout the day, to stay maximally informed — drilling down on complex issues, keeping up with breaking news, and downloading research and data. Paid subscribers and registered visitors engage deeply with an authoritative community of analysts, practitioners and innovators through opinion content, research panels, social media, and live events.

Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

In this multimedia package, American Banker tackles a challenging subject for many bankers—how to offer more products and services to the millions of consumers who live paycheck to paycheck and find themselves turning to high-cost lenders to survive. Many banks perceive this market as one where they can’t make a profit, so they ignore it. But some are trying to help.

JPMorgan Chase, for example, has created an innovation lab to support fintech firms that develop services for this niche, while Key Bank is offering its own products. Senior editor Alan Kline’s 3,000-word lead article is a deep dive into what banks are trying and what more could be done. Kevin Wack follows with a feature on Union Bank’s efforts to open branches in high schools in low-income California communities, which are designed to provide services to students and give financial literacy skills to its student employees.

The package also includes two op-eds on the issue: M&T Bank CEO Robert Wilmers decries how low interest rates hit low-income savers the hardest, and two experts argue that improvements in serving this market haven’t gone far enough. The package includes a slideshow in which microfinance lenders provide bankers with insight into this untapped market. Finally, there’s a podcast with Kosta Peric, deputy director of financial services for the poor at the Gates Foundation, who discusses efforts to expand access to low-cost financial services in developing countries.

Links to entry URLs

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Entry URL(s), if applicable:
https://www.americanbanker.com/collections/financial-inclusion-report
https://www.americanbanker.com/news/when-theres-too-much-month-at-the-end-of-the-money?collection=0000015b-a1ed-def0-a35f-e5ff92340000
https://www.americanbanker.com/slideshow/whats-on-the-minds-of-microfinance-lenders?collection=0000015b-a1ed-def0-a35f-e5ff92340000
https://www.americanbanker.com/news/how-high-school-branches-extended-union-banks-minority-reach?collection=0000015b-a1ed-def0-a35f-e5ff92340000
https://www.americanbanker.com/opinion/low-interest-rates-are-hurting-the-middle-class?collection=0000015b-a1ed-def0-a35f-e5ff92340000
https://www.americanbanker.com/opinion/non-wealthy-consumers-need-financial-innovation-too?collection=0000015b-a1ed-def0-a35f-e5ff92340000
https://www.americanbanker.com/podcast/this-is-not-about-charity-gates-foundation-exec-on-financial-inclusion-and-mobile-money?collection=0000015b-a1ed-def0-a35f-e5ff92340000

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