Partnership has Potential to Reach Nearly One Million Low-Income Consumers NEW YORK, JUNE 4, 2015 - MetLife Foundation announced today a three-year partnership with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) and Bankable Frontier Associates, LLC (BFA) to develop Optimizing Performance Through Improved Cross(X)-Sell (OPTIX), a program to provide microfinance institutions and cooperatives with a breadth of financial tools that can assist them to better serve their clients.
The microfinance institutions and cooperatives include: Cooperativa Acreimex in Mexico, Banco WWB in Colombia, SAJIDA Foundation in Bangladesh and Capital Aid Fund for Employment of the Poor (CEP) in Vietnam. OPTIX will assist these four socially-driven financial service providers build and strengthen a full suite of financial offerings for their low-income clients. Cross-selling a variety of financial products may ensure client retention, secure their niche against larger competitors and allow them to meet the particular needs of the market segments they serve.
Our partners have proven experience reaching low-income customers with a variety of savings and credit products. This unique partnership and learning model will allow these organizations to broaden their overall financial portfolios, which should help them become more sustainable. MetLife Foundation is excited to be a part of this initiative because of its ability to meet nearly one million clients' holistic financial needs, and increase the sustainability of the institution serving them, said Dennis White, president & chief executive officer of MetLife Foundation.
Low-income households in the developing world face a triple-threat when managing their financial well-being. Their incomes are not only low but also irregular and unpredictable. Because of this they need to manage their cash flows more actively than better-off households. In this situation, underserved households generally require a broad array of financial tools.
BFA, in partnership with RPA, will build a set of tools to effectively help institutions' strategic and tactical thinking about how to improve cross-sell through a three step process:
Design analytical frameworks to test and define opportunities to increase cross-sell
Develop the cross-sell strategy using client insights
Implement, monitor and reevaluate the cross-sell strategy
In markets where increasingly more institutions are looking to go down market and target low-income clients, financial institutions already focused on the low-income segment hold great advantage. However, we know that the profit margins of providing a single product to the poor are extremely thin; acquisition and servicing costs are high. New branchless banking methods show promise in bringing down the costs of transactions, but client engagement methods must be more targeted and demand cross-selling more than one product is important to better serve clients sustainably. BFA is looking forward to partnering with the selected institutions to optimize their client-centric cross-sell strategies, said Daryl Collins, managing director of BFA and author of Portfolios of the Poor.
Using a client-centric approach, OPTIX looks to maximize outcomes for the institutions as well as their clients. Each institution will have access to various tools to support the development and implementation of their cross-sell strategies. The tools include:
Action research (data analytics, business case analysis, quantitative and qualitative client research)
Grant funding
Peer support network and bilateral exchanges
Technical assistance
Leveraging MetLife corporate staff skills
The benefits of access to secure, affordable financial products continue to elude millions of low-income individuals around the world. However, improvements in technology and greater philanthropic partnerships across sectors open promising new pathways to alleviating poverty and to bringing critical financial to underserved populations, said Chris Page, senior vice president of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. OPTIX provides a great opportunity to test out new technologies and innovative methods with strong, socially-minded microfinance institutions, and we look forward to working closely with our partners MetLife and BFA in the search for innovative solutions.
This initiative will provide greater knowledge for the broader financial inclusion community and will enable practitioners to implement strategies and products that are scalable and sustainable to better serve the needs of low-income customers around the world.
About MetLife Foundation
MetLife Foundation was created in 1976 to continue MetLife's long tradition of corporate contributions and community involvement. Since its founding through the end of 2014, MetLife Foundation has provided more than $670 million in grants and $70 million in program-related investments to organizations addressing issues that have a positive impact in their communities. Today, the Foundation is dedicated to advancing financial inclusion, committing $200 million to help build a secure future for individuals and communities around the world. To learn more about MetLife Foundation, visit www.metlife.org.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
Partnership has Potential to Reach Nearly One Million Low-Income Consumers NEW YORK, JUNE 4, 2015 - MetLife Foundation announced today a three-year partnership with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) and Bankable Frontier Associates, LLC (BFA) to develop Optimizing Performance Through Improved Cross(X)-Sell (OPTIX), a program to provide microfinance institutions and cooperatives with a breadth of financial tools that can assist them to better serve their clients.
