The Filene Research Institute is an American
credit union
A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, is a member-owned nonprofit organization, nonprofit financial cooperative. Credit unions generally provide services to members similar to retail banks, including depo ...
and
consumer finance
Personal finance is the financial management which an individual or a family unit performs to budget, save, and spend monetary resources over time, taking into account various financial risks and future life events.
When planning personal fi ...
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
headquartered in
Madison Madison may refer to:
People
* Madison (name), a given name and a surname
* James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States
Place names
* Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...
,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
.
History and objective
Founded in 1989, it is committed to research and innovation to further the credit union movement and support consumer financial wellbeing. The institute is named for
Edward Filene
Edward Albert Filene (September 3, 1860 – September 26, 1937) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He is best known for building the Filene's department store chain and for his decisive role in pioneering credit unions across the Un ...
, a
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
-based businessman and
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
who was instrumental in the creation of credit unions in the U.S.
In 1993, the institute published a research report on the evolution of credit union field of membership, helping to lay the groundwork for H.R 1151, the
Credit Union Membership Access Act The Credit Union Membership Access Act is an Act for the United States government that amended the Federal Credit Union Act in 1998. The bill was proposed on the heels of the Supreme Court decision in NCUA v. First National Bank & Trust against th ...
.
In 2003, the institute started the REAL Solutions project to study financial services for low-income households and address
predatory lending Predatory lending refers to unethical practices conducted by lending organizations during a loan origination process that are unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent. While there are no internationally agreed legal definitions for predatory lending, a 2006 ...
and other fringe financial services. The project became a program of the
National Credit Union Foundation
The National Credit Union Foundation (the Foundation) is the charitable arm of America's credit union movement and works as a catalyst to improve people's financial lives through credit unions. The Foundation is an affiliate of the Credit Union ...
in 2007.
In 2004, the institute launched an innovation training program called i3 (for "Ideas, Innovation, Implementation"), which brings together credit union executives to identify new solutions and business models in financial services.
In 2010, the institute established the Cooperative Trust program and community to support credit union young professionals. In 2017, the Cooperative Trust was awarded the Herb Wegner Memorial Outstanding Program Award by the National Credit Union Foundation
The institute engages several prominent
academic research
Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...
ers, including:
*
Sekou Bermiss
*
Dennis Campbell
*
Robert Hoel
*
William E. Jackson
*
Jinkook Lee
*
Robert D. Manning
Robert D. Manning (born 1957) is a former financial advisor in consumer credit and financial services. Up until 2008, Manning was a professor of finance at Rochester Institute of Technology's E. Philip Saunders College of Business.
Education
...
*
Bill Maurer
William M. Maurer (born March 31, 1968) is an American academic scholar of legal and economic anthropology. He currently serves as the dean of the School of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He has conducted research on mo ...
*
Hayagreeva "Huggy" Rao
*
Quinetta Roberson
*
Barbara J. Robles
*
J. Edward Russo
*
Hope Schau
*
Lisa J. Servon
*
Peter Tufano
Peter Tufano (born 1957) was the dean of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford until 2021 before being replaced by Sue Dopson as interim acting dean. Before moving to Oxford in 2011, he spent over three decades at Harvard Universit ...
*
James A. Wilcox
Partnerships
In early 2012, it partnered with
Saveup; a company which rewards fiscal responsibility.
The institute is a grantee of the
Center for Financial Services Innovation
The Financial Health Network, formerly known as the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI), is a nonprofit financial services consultancy headquartered in Chicago, specializing in serving unbanked and underbanked consumers.
An affiliat ...
.
The institute has also been supported by the
Ford Foundation and
Visa
Visa most commonly refers to:
*Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company
** Visa Debit card issued by the above company
** Visa Electron, a debit card
** Visa Plus, an interbank network
*Travel visa, a document that allows ...
to conduct research on financial services for households of color, including Latino/a and immigrant households.
See also
*
List of credit unions in the United States
*
List of think tanks in the United States
This is a list of notable think tanks in the United States.
Politics and economy
*Acton Institute
*Allegheny Institute for Public Policy
* American Action Forum
*American Civil Rights Union
* American College of Pediatricians
*American Ent ...
References
External links
filene.org the institute's official website
1989 establishments in the United States
Companies based in Madison, Wisconsin
Banks established in 1989
Credit unions based in Wisconsin
Non-profit organizations based in Wisconsin
Political and economic think tanks in the United States
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