Lisa J. Servon

Servon will draw from several years of original research to write a book examining the connections between widespread financial insecurity and the consumer financial services industry. She will investigate the interconnectedness between the three components of the consumer financial services industry—mainstream, alternative, and informal—and illustrate how policy has been made without a full understanding of how people move among these three components. Servon will trace the increase in the number of Americans who are categorized as “financially excluded” and show how the current situation is rooted in both macroeconomic shifts and in long term policy trends.