India is rapidly urbanizing and the rate of urbanization is expected to climb steeply over the next few decades. The urban population of India will be close to 600 million by 2030, as compared to 340 million in 2008.

In the second blog in the Consumer Financial Protection series, we explore insights from behavioral economics that could fundamentally impact the design of legislation and regulation for consumer protection in finance.

A recent article in the Economist notes approvingly about the growing phenomenon of Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) as a means for low-income clients to save securely and earn high returns.

According to a Monitor Group report there is a ‘vibrant housing market in urban India’ seen from the spectacular growth in housing finance at 36% CAGR for more than a decade.

IFMR Finance Foundation is working on the agenda of consumer protection in finance as part of its mandate on financial systems design.

We have covered in our earlier posts, two of the three functional sessions of the IFMR Financial Systems Design Conference 2011, namely Origination and Risk Aggregation. This post summarises the third: Risk Transmission.

On November 22nd and 23rd, IFMR Capital held its first partners meet, a two day meet with all its partners to re-envision access to finance for institutions that impact low income households.

High-quality access to financial services is important not only for households and enterprises, but also for cities and Panchayats so that they have the ability to undertake projects that provide essential goods and utilities to citizens.

IFMR Finance Foundation worked with Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India (PFRDA) as Knowledge Partners to help organise their first NPS-Lite Aggregators’ Meet in New Delhi, on 21st November, 2011.