This paper reviews the relevance of formal financial services – in particular, savings – to poor people, the economic factors that have hindered the mass-scale delivery of such services in developing countries, and the technology-based opportunities that exist today to make massive...

Confiscation of currency has sometimes occurred through the fine print of currency reforms. While only a small fraction of currency reforms worldwide have masked a confiscation, when they don't they are likely to follow a hyperinflationary bout. Thus, one way or another, currency reforms are...

About a dozen developing countries have deposit insurance systems and several others are considering establishing them. These systems are typically created to prevent contagious bank runs, to provide a formal national mechanism for handling failing banks, and to protect small depositors from...