How Banks are Failing Americans

The Weekly Slice

Welcome to?The Weekly Slice,?the newsletter for people dedicated to creating a more inclusive economy.?Each week, we bring you the latest in inclusive economy news, resources, and events from programs and initiatives across the Aspen Institute.?

This week’s Slice looks at ways banks can bring 60 million Americans into the formal economy, an influential book from an Institute leader, and the role of finance in a sustainable world.?

Let’s dig in!

–Lorelle Atkinson

This week’s newsletter is 889 words–a 5 minute read.

In the News

Why Banks are Failing Millions in America

If you’re reading this newsletter, you can probably recite the statistics by heart. More than 60 million Americans—about 1 in 5—are unbanked or underbanked, numbers which include about half of the country’s Black and Latinx populations.?

The problem is systemic—and expensive. The Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program sees?building inclusive financial systems?as a critical strategy to maximize financial security for all.?

Earlier this month during the?Aspen Ideas Festival, Jenn White of?NPR’s interview program 1Aspoke with three people working to create a more inclusive banking ecosystem:?Wole Coaxum, founder & CEO of?Mobility Capital Finance?(MoCaFi);?Ida Rademacher, executive director of the?Aspen Financial Security Program; and?Shamina Singh, founder and president of the?Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

Key takeaways:?

• People who are used to managing scarcity are great money managers by necessity, but they aren’t given the access and tools they need to function as autonomous financial citizens.
• Check cashing services, pawnshops, and payday loans take hefty percentages and rack up onerous fees and interest charges—money that could be improving lives and expanding the economy.?
• Technology can help, but it’s not a magic bullet—especially if it’s not designed with inclusion as a priority.

Why it matters:?All people have a right to participate in the formal economy with autonomy and safety. Providing them with access to affordable, high quality financial tools to manage their money helps create stability and ultimately financial security—so people can invest in their future in ways that matter to them.

What’s next:?Unlike some 50 other countries, the US has no formal plan to address gaps in economic access. The Financial Security Program, in concert with more than 100 financial and tech sector companies, consumer advocacy nonprofits, and civil rights leaders (including both Mastercard and MoCaFi) is?calling for a national inclusion strategy?as?supported by US Senators Chris Coons, John Hickenlooper, and Raphael Warnock.?

Listen to the interview.

Latest Discussion

CEOs on Igniting Innovation and Sustaining Change: Fireside Chat with Steve Rendle and John Hayes

Earlier this month, the?Business & Society Program?welcomed 130 business executives, long-term investors, and a host of advocates, advisors, and scholars for two days of conversation, inspiration, and dialogue about “ESG.” Shorthand for Environmental, Social, Governance, ESG encompasses a complex set of issues that place the decisions and performance of corporations under the microscope, offering a window into business priorities for those “outside the gate,” or who invest in publicly traded as well as private companies. Increasingly, it is also about the?sentiment of employees.

The inaugural ESG Summit featured a keynote conversation with?Steve Rendle, CEO of VF Corporation (brands include the North Face, Dickies, Supreme) and?John Hayes, chairman and former CEO of Ball Corporation, the world’s leader in fully circular aluminum products. Moderator?Ellen McGirt?of?Fortune?led a discussion about what ESG trends are top-of-mind for CEOs, what’s driving the need for corporate innovation and industry-level change, and how companies are responding.

Watch the discussion.

Important Ideas?

The Six New Rules of Business: Creating Real Value in a Changing World

Judy Samuelson, executive director of the?Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, made a splash last year with her book?The Six New Rules of Business: Creating Real Value in a Changing World. On the ground in Colorado for the?Aspen ESG Summit, she gave a quick overview of the ideas behind the book. For a deeper dive, you can watch the?book talk from the title's launch—or?buy it here.

Watch the interview.

Important Lessons?

Clarity, Climate and Principles: Aligning Social and Economic Value Through Finance

ESG is now a real force in the financial world, but it’s not without its detractors. Some ask whether a company’s social and environmental impact are truly material to the bottom line, while others wonder whether ESG can serve as a useful tool in combating challenges as vast as climate change.

For Loyola University’s?Swasti Gupta-Mukherjee, both questions can be answered in the affirmative—and both require insights often missing in business. In her scholarship and in her Aspen Institute?Ideas Worth Teaching?Award-winning course “Finance for a Sustainable World,” Gupta-Mukherjee stresses that 21st century finance can play a critical role in clarifying the environmental, social, and economic stakes of the choices business leaders must make.

Read the full interview.?

?ICYMI

Need-to-know stories you may have missed.?

• In an?article in?Quartz, the Institute’s (aforementioned)?Judy Samuelson?argues that ESG is an opportunity for employees to speak up about the values and actions of the companies they work for.?The opinion piece made a fitting intro to the Business & Society Program’s inaugural?Aspen ESG Summit, held July 11-13.
• In a session at this year’s?Aspen Ideas Festival,?The New York Times’?David Leonhardtnoted that our current ways of measuring economic prosperity simply don’t measure up.?Fast Company’s?Talib Visram?helps us see beyond GDP and the unemployment rate in his article “How can we reinvent the way we measure economic prosperity?”
• In their ongoing response to the challenges facing essential workers in America, the?Financial Security Program?and?the?Future of Work Initiative?hosted?Recovery, Re-Employment, and Re-Imagining Work, an online video discussion with policymakers, industry leaders, advocates, and academics, asking what the country can do to build an inclusive future of work.?Watch the full session.