They may take their tea with milk and pronounce "tomato" wrong, but here's something on which we can agree with our friends across the pond.

Yesterday, the UK's International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander announced DFID's ₤1.4 million, three-year project: Facilitating Access to Financial Services through Technology (FAST).  Working with CGAP and GTZ, FAST's aim is to "lay the foundations for financial services to be made available through new and emerging technology across Africa and Asia."

As it stands now, 2 billion people in the developing world lack access to financial services, because of distance or affordability constraints.  With that in mind, FAST aims to explore the possibilities and extend the reach of "branchless banking" using new technologies and innovative methods.

Its three-pronged strategy is to:

There is still much to learn about the financial tools needed to help the world's poor mitigate risks and build assets in order to build an economic base and contribute to long-term economic development. This session primarily focused on "building assets in the developing world."

Sylvia Matthews , director of Global Development at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation opened the second working group session stating that 2.3 billion with no access to financial services for the poor, even though evidence suggests they would make perfect customers. She asked her panelists: "What do people need, what works, what are some solutions and how do we reach scale?" Again, asset building and asset protection products reigned supreme:

Bob Rubin, the first Director of National Economic Council, then Secretary of the Treasury, and now a Director at Citigroup, Inc remarked on the health of the financial system and impact on financial services for the poor. "We need to stem the crisis of confidence in the US now, but we also need to put into place effective responses to longer-term problems the country faces, like healthcare, education and economic opportunities for the poor."

Last month, I argued that USAID inaptly named a three-day virtual conference on savings as "The Forgotten Half of Microfinance." Instead, I posited:

"As someone working on asset building and financial inclusion for the poor (and/or their cross-fertilization in the development field), I would contend that the hosts got it wrong when chose the title for this event. Indeed, "savings" is not "forgotten" at all. Though perhaps traditionally underemphasized, I would argue that, on the contrary, savings is the in fact the "next big thing" in financial interventions."

Looks like I got this one right.