About the FIIT Index
Tracking impact and transparency across financial inclusion.
Hi, I'm Zac
I'm a financial inclusion practitioner, writer, researcher, and builder. I've been working in financial inclusion since 2014, helping financial institutions, investors, and their stakeholders to embed systems that understand and report impact.
I believe deeply in both impact and transparency. Over the years, I've spent a lot of time trying to understand what's actually happening at the intersection of impact investing and financial inclusion. So I started to build some personal databases.
Why I Built This Website
When I started digging into the impact investing landscape in financial inclusion, I expected to find a rich ecosystem of data. Instead, I found significant gaps.
I was shocked (perhaps I shouldn't have been) by how little credible impact data exists publicly. Investors talk about impact constantly, but the actual evidence is remarkably thin. I was equally shocked by how little pricing transparency is available on financial institution websites, especially given the noise in the industry around the importance of transparency and client protection.
The gap between what is claimed and reality doesn't sit right with me. There was no single place where someone could look across institutions, their funders, and countries to understand the state of transparency in financial inclusion.
So I started building one.
The FIIT Index
The Financial Inclusion Impact & Transparency (FIIT) Index is a database with the goal of understanding and improving impact and transparency within the financial inclusion sector. It is not perfect, just continuously improving.
The database tracks financial service providers, the investors that fund them, and the countries they operate in, with a focus on what these organisations disclose publicly about their impact and pricing.
Simplicity, Continuous Improvement
The FIIT Index focuses on publicly available information. It all started by asking some simple questions.
Impact Reporting
Does the institution publish an impact report or social performance data that's publicly accessible?
Loan Pricing
Is pricing information (interest rates, fees) clearly displayed on their website for potential clients?
Web Presence
Does the institution have an active, functional website where stakeholders can find information?
Funder Relationships
Which investors and development finance institutions are funding each provider, and across which geographies?
A Note on Accuracy
Whilst accuracy is the goal here, I cannot guarantee that information is complete or up-to-date. If you represent any organisation in the databases and would like to provide additional data or correct any information, please send me an email.
Support This Work
The FIIT Index will always be open and free. If you find value in it, your contribution helps keep the research going.