Fifth Third Community Development Corp. is investing an additional $2.5 million in First Independence Bank. The move makes Fifth Third the largest investor in the minority depository institution and community development financial institution.
The Wall Street Journal has celebrated the winning enterprises of The Financial Inclusion Challenge 2017, sponsored by MetLife Foundation. BIMA, Kinara Capital and Entrepreneurial Finance Lab were all recognized as leaders in the field of financial inclusion at an awards ceremony at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.
Marketing makes us want to buy all kinds of stuff. But can marketing magic make saving more appealing, fun, or even cool? Virtually everyone would like to retire comfortably and to be free from financial worry on a daily basis. Yet, many people don’t save enough even for unexpected expenses—a proposition that’s even more challenging for low-to-medium income people. Look to a U.S. Federal Reserve Board survey published in May 2016, in which 46 percent of respondents said they couldn’t cover even a $400 emergency expense without selling something or borrowing money.
MetLife Foundation and Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, introduced “Dream, Save, Do: Financial Empowerment for Everyone” to Kumamoto children and their families at the Hiroyasu Nishi Elementary School on June 2-3. The two-day events included workshops providing families with “Dream, Save, Do” materials featuring the Sesame Street Muppets, as well as content to promote discussion and effective strategies for planning and saving.
As featured in the MetLife Annual Report 2016 : MetLife Foundation’s financial inclusion grant-making is organized into three broad categories: knowledge, services, and insights.
Multipliers of Prosperity is an award-winning thought leadership platform that features stories from MetLife Foundation’s grantees. It includes videos, infographics, and other content on the work of financial inclusion. This unique resource, developed in partnership with WSJ. Custom Studios, helps share best practices, insights, and information about financial inclusion issues. It is the Foundation’s contribution to sharing knowledge and raising awareness of financial inclusion around the world.
As featured in the MetLife Annual Report 2016: These grants are leveraging the power of behavioral economics to drive change. Common Cents Lab at Duke University | Social scientists call the gap between what people know they should do and what they actually do the “intention-action” gap. Bridging that gap is important for financial health because financially self-defeating behaviors can have serious consequences. Common Cents Lab is a three-year initiative aimed at using behavioral economic insights to test innovations that can help low-income Americans make better financial decisions.
As featured in the MetLife Annual Report 2016: Nothing inspires innovation like competition. So MetLife Foundation teamed up with Verb, a company that specializes in social innovation, to develop a competition that brings together entrepreneurs and MetLife associates across four regions. The program launched in Ireland, China, and India, with more than 250 social ventures competing and 240 MetLife associates volunteering nearly 1,000 collective hours as mentors and judges.
Off Grid Electric is the world’s first distributed clean energy utility, providing affordable, solar energy to households that struggle with spotty or nonexistent grid access. They sell solar energy systems on a pay-as-you-go, lease-to-own model – costing some homes as little as $7 a month. That way, customers don’t have to worry about making a daunting financial investment upfront.
AEG embraces its responsibility to enrich the lives of people in the communities around the world where we do business, and to use business to create...
