Welcome

Photo of Money

Welcome to the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI). Established in 2008, the Institute is housed in the School of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. Its mission is to support research on money and technology among the world's poorest people. We seek to create a community of practice and inquiry into the everyday uses and meanings of money, as well as the technological infrastructures being developed as carriers of mainstream and alternative currencies worldwide.

Loading

Twitter Facebook Mendeley Flickr Vimeo

 Subscribe to IMTFI's email list

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

View IMTFI Fourth Annual Conference powerpoint presentations and video.

IMTFI Spring 2013 Newsletter available online.

Research Currently Underway

IMTFI is currently supporting 85 research projects in 35 different countries. This includes support for over 100 researchers, over 70% of whom are from the developing world. Most research projects span a full year in length. Use the navigation bar above to learn more about IMTFI's research. Under About the Project, you will find a general introduction and you will be able to view abstracts of the all the research projects the institute has funded. Under Research, you will find our first Annual Report, as well as a working draft of several Design Principles. These include ideas based on the research for innovative mobile money and conventional savings solutions that work with, rather than against, people's existing monetary ecologies and repertoires. You will also find synopses of completed research projects from the first two years and a new publication highlighting a selection of the Institute's projects by IMTFI researcher Melissa Cliver, titled New Organizational Models: Open-Source Financial Services Research.You may also view recorded researcher presentations from past IMTFI conferences.

Check back frequently; this section of the website is being updated on a continuous basis, as researchers begin to submit their findings. Under Resources, you will find instructions on how to access IMTFI's ever-growing database of published works on mobile money and related topics. You will also get to see what we are currently reading, under Recommended Readings, and the websites we regularly consult, under Related Links. We invite you to explore our website and to participate in IMTFI's research agenda.