Financial Inclusion & Beyond Series Wrap-up

In the final episode of Financial Inclusion & Beyond, your series hosts take a look back at key themes and takeaways from our conversations.

Some of the key takeaways we review include:

• The events of the pandemic left us all humbler at the scope of the challenge we face here in the United States to deliver full financial access to all citizens and promote their financial health.
• Financial inclusion often conveys the notion of basic access, but true inclusion is about enabling individuals lives and letting them pursue their dreams.
• Experts from a diverse range of disciplines like impact investing, behavioral economics, and community development are focused on designing new financial products and services to meet the needs of low income populations historically treated as second class citizens in the financial system.
• Regulators need to grapple with how to promote positive change through their engagement with innovative firms. A narrow focus on simply negating bad outcomes has not been sufficient to create real financial inclusion and racial equity, and a shift in mindset is necessary.
• The San Francisco Fed’s Framework for Change makes a persuasive case for the economic benefits of a more inclusive financial system. We are at a critical moment to reflect and take action, and both public and private stakeholders have a lot of work ahead of them to promote meaningful change.

The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco or of the Federal Reserve System.