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Meet People Where They Are: Building Formal Credit Using Informal Financial Traditions

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  • Tom Akana

Abstract

The Consumer Finance Institute hosted a workshop in February 2019 featuring José Quiñonez, chief executive officer, and Elena Fairley, programs director, of Mission Asset Fund (MAF) to discuss MAF’s approach to helping its clients improve access to mainstream financial markets. MAF’s signature program, Lending Circles, adapts a traditional community-based financial tool known as a rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA) to help establish or expand credit reports for participants who may not be able to do so through traditional means. Lending Circles have served more than 10,000 clients since 2007 and have expanded well beyond MAF’s core constituency in the Mission District of San Francisco. Quiñonez and Fairley discussed MAF’s approach to working with the communities it serves and shared the key successes and challenges that MAF has encountered. This paper provides an overview of the information shared in the workshop and additional research connecting Lending Circles to previous work on ROSCAs.

Suggested Citation

  • Tom Akana, 2020. "Meet People Where They Are: Building Formal Credit Using Informal Financial Traditions," Consumer Finance Institute discussion papers 20-01, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedpdp:87614
    DOI: 10.21799/frbp.dp.2020.01
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA); financial inclusion; credit invisibles; underserved; unbanked; fintech; financial technology;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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