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The article reports that the United Nations (UN) is focusing its attention on finance for the poor. In the next 12 months the spotlight falls on microfinance, the business of lending small amounts of money to the poor, taking deposits from them, transmitting money on their behalf and insuring them. No good data exist on how many people have access to financial institutions, the breadth and penetration of banks in poor countries, the real cost of a loan and the time it takes to get one, the ease of making a deposit and so forth. There is not even convincing information, beyond lots of anecdotes illustrated by photographs of women in rural villages, about whether microfinance makes any significant contribution to economic growth or is merely another philanthropic fad. The UN would do well to address the common complaint that banks ignore the poor out of class bias. If they do, the UN's interest may hasten change: some financial institutions are already making efforts to work with the poor, either directly or by providing wholesale services to smaller financial institutions.

The article focuses on the effects of mobile money and cellular telephones on poor people in developing countries. The article reports that mobile phones have a direct impact on economic growth in poor countries and that mobile-money services such as M-PESA can be used on mobile phones. The article suggests that mobile money is a safer and faster way to transfer money in Africa and Asia.