Microfinance Focus June 28, 2011: The Microsavings and Payments Innovation Initiative (MPII) is inviting Expressions of Interest (EOI) to conduct field-based research on savings products and services as well as payments and money transfer channels for the world’s poor and financially excluded. EOI submissions for Round 1 will be due on Friday, August 5, 2011.

Despite financial inclusion being a top policy priority across developing countries, relatively little is known about the specific factors that enable people to save and transfer money more effectively. Recent years have seen a growth in technological innovations enabling products such as mobile money and new channels such as agent banking. Yet, the impact of such innovations on poverty alleviation is still unknown.

The Microsavings and Payments Innovation Initiative will fill this gap by building evidence on innovations that enable improved usage of savings and payments services by the poor through reduced cost, reduced risk, improved learning, behavioral incentives, regulatory reform and such. In addition, it will also measure the impact that improved savings products and payments channels have on the welfare of the poor. Under the Yale Savings and Payments Research (YASPR) Fund of MPII, a total of $1,270,000 will be awarded in grants across three or four competitive funding rounds.

The EOI submissions will be evaluated on the industry and policy relevance, creativity, quality of study design, fit with the initiative’s learning goals, and the applicants’ research experience and capability.

For online application click