Financial Engineering for Low-Income Households

Bindu Ananth and Amit Shah recently published the book "Financial Engineering for Low-Income Households". The motivation of this book is to systematically compile principles from finance and economics theory and apply them to the context of design and delivery of financial services for low-income households. This is meant by the term financial engineering in this context. The biggest opportunity is in going away from standardized products to customized delivery. Financial engineering is essential to this customization because it provides the algorithms/rules for this customization. Therefore, in theory, each person can have a uniquely designed portfolio of financial services that reflect her growth and risk management needs. KGFS, a growing rural financial services company, has developed products and an operating model to meet the needs of low income households and to apply financial engineering.