Despite the highest labor force participation rates in the country, Latinos remain disproportionately locked out of the financial mainstream. More than one in four are credit invisible — without the records needed to access affordable loans, rent an apartment, or build toward homeownership. In this essay for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and CFED’s What It’s Worth anthology, MAF CEO José Quiñonez argues that the path to financial inclusion runs not through deficit-based interventions, but through the strengths already present in people’s lives — including the informal lending traditions that millions of families rely on every day.
What’s inside- How MAF’s strength-based model grew out of listening to immigrant communities, not prescribing to them
- The case for Lending Circles: formalizing tandas to make invisible financial activity count
- MAF’s Hierarchy of Financial Needs — a Maslow-inspired framework for understanding true economic potential
- How low-income Latinos combine informal practices, financial products, and public programs to navigate financial insecurity
- Policy and sector recommendations for building an inclusive financial system that starts with people’s strengths
