Program Workshop on Financial Inclusion and Inequality

Workshop on “Financial Inclusion and Inequality”
Dr. Philip Mader (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex)
Dr. Guadalupe Moreno (University of St. Gallen)

Date: 19 - 20.11.2026
Time: Day 1 from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Day 2 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Location: Freie Universität Berlin
Day 1: Room 003, Boltzmannstraße 1, 14195 Berlin
Day 2: Room 315, Garystraße 21, 14195 Berlin

I. Description:
This workshop examines the evolution of financial inclusion and its implications for households, with a particular focus on the relationship between access to financial services, credit, digitalization, and over-indebtedness.
The first guest lecture traces the origins of contemporary financial inclusion policies in microfinance and its precursors. It reviews the theoretical foundations and empirical evidence on the effects of financial inclusion, including its economic and gender dimensions, while examining the recurrent emergence of over-indebtedness among low-income populations. The session will also consider the challenges these experiences pose for the broader agenda of financial inclusion, particularly in its increasingly digital forms.
The second guest lecture shifts the focus to the digitalization of payments and the transformation of the infrastructure through which financial inclusion takes place. It explores the transition from cash as a public payment infrastructure to privately owned cashless systems, and examines how the growing integration of payment systems with consumer credit has contributed to the expansion of both financial inclusion and household indebtedness. The presentation compares developments in the Global North, particularly the United States and the euro area, with different trajectories in the Global South, including mobile money in sub-Saharan Africa, super apps in East Asia, and central-bank-led instant payment systems in Latin America.

II. Participation requirements:
• Participation is only possible with prior registration. Please register by November 5, 2026, by contacting carmen.marull@fu-berlin.de . Space is limited, so early registration is recommended.
• All participants are expected to read the mandatory reading.
• Participants presenting their PhD projects are required to upload their exposé (max. 15 pages) and a video presentation (20 minutes long) by November 12, 2026.
• All materials are available here.

III. Mandatory reading:

Bernards, N. (2022). A critical history of poverty finance: Colonial roots and neoliberal failures. Pluto Press, pp. 1–17 (Introduction).

Brandl, B., Hengsbach, D. and Moreno, G. (2025) ‘Small money, large profits: how the cashless revolution aggravates social inequality’, Socio-Economic Review, 23(2), pp. 735–757.

IV. Detailed Workshop Schedule

Day 1: 19.11.2026

2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Financial inclusion: origins, theory, evidence and crises
Dr. Philip Mader (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex)

3:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. Coffee Break

3:45 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. The Digitalization of Payments and Financial Inclusion: Private
Infrastructures, Consumer Credit and Over- Indebtedness
Dr. Guadalupe Moreno (University of St. Gallen)
Complementary reading: Brandl, B., Moreno, G. (2026). Cashing In on Cashless:
Different Pathways to Cashless Payments in the Global South. In: Hoven, I. G.,
In, S.Y., Puschmann, T. (eds.), Sustainable Digital Finance.
Financial Innovation and Technology. Springer, Cham.

5:15 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Coffee Break