Financial Inclusion Lab
Motivation
The Financial Inclusion Lab (FIL), funded by a gift from Visa, was established in 2015 as a clearinghouse for research on the returns to investments in financial inclusion. Evidence generated through FIL guides Visa and its partners towards increasing the adoption and sustained use of electronic payments and complementary interventions in emerging markets. Currently, FIL is exploring the impacts of e-payment infrastructure on small business development in Mexico, and the effectiveness of linked lines of credit on cash transfer beneficiaries in the Dominican Republic. In Fall 2016, FIL awarded four small pilot grants to support early-stage, exploratory research on financial inclusion in emerging markets. Two large-scale evaluations in Mexico and the Dominican Republic are still ongoing.
