G20 Foundation Publications Turkey 2015 | Page 70

70 DEVELOPMENT ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL Delivering Financial Services with the Clients’ Needs in Mind Dennis White, President & CEO, MetLife Foundation MetLife Foundation believes that everyone needs the right financial tools to manage life’s risks and seize its opportunities. That belief has inspired MetLife’s operations since the nineteenth century when we pioneered “working man’s insurance” in the United States. And it inspired MetLife Foundation in 2013 to make global financial inclusion the focus of a five-year, $200 million commitment. world’s issue, important disparities exist in the industrialized countries too, often along gender, ethnic, and socio-economic lines, between who is fully financially included and who is not. Our perspective on financial inclusion goes beyond a concern with access alone. Too many people, even those who may be numbered among the “financially included,” only have access to rigid, one-size-fits-all group loans that do not meet their needs—and may even leave them worse off. Women, especially, are more likely to be financially excluded or limited to group-loan products. And although financial exclusion is often considered the developing In India, MetLife Foundation g rantee Grameen Foundation is working to expand client- centric outreach among some of the poorest communities in Uttar Pradesh. Grameen, in partnership with local institution Margdarshak, is launching a “business correspondent model,” in which agents acting on the institution’s behalf fan out among the poor and underserved communities. Equipped with mobile technology, these agents go door to door, enrolling and MetLife Foundation works to ensure that more of the world’s families have the full range of financial services they need—safe, affordable, properly regulated, convenient to access, and delivered by providers who treat them with respect. We believe that institutions should adapt to customers’ needs, not the other way around. And we’re proud to work with likeminded partners all over the world, including in some of the G20 countries.