FICS Research Co-director Selected to Aid in Global Financial Inclusion Efforts

FICS Research Co-director, Prof. Patrick Traynor, who was also recently named the John H. and Mary Lou Dasburg Preeminent Chair in Engineering at the University of Florida’s Computer & Information Science & Engineering Department (CISE), was selected to be a CFI fellow by the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion. The CFI Fellows Program, which was created to address some of the crucial challenges currently facing the goals of global financial inclusion, engages and encourages independent researchers and analysts at the top of their fields to explore solutions to these obstacles.

Financial inclusion, often also called inclusive financing, refers to the practice of delivering readily accessible financial services and products -such as the use of mobile networks for banking and business transactions -at affordable costs to disadvantaged and low-income population segments worldwide.  According to the World Bank Organization, whose primary mission is to help reduce poverty and increase living wages in developing nations, “Financial Inclusion is a key enabler to reducing reducing poverty and boosting prosperity”.

Prof. Traynor’s research, which has been featured on CSPAN, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal, focuses on the security of mobile systems, concentrating on telecommunications infrastructure and mobile devices. For his CFI Fellow appointment, he will be focusing his efforts on the area of online credit and data security, for which he will be conducting technical and policy analysis, sharing observations,  and offering recommendations for how to forge ethical and inclusive paths forward.

To learn more about the CFI Fellows Program and other participants, visit this: http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/programs-a-projects/cfi-fellows-program

For some examples of what successful financial inclusion initiatives in different countries entail and the positive impact(s) that they are credited with, read this brief from The World Bank Organization: Overview: Financial Inclusion Strategies.