A Critical History of Poverty Finance: Colonial Roots and Neoliberal Failures

'Nick Bernards has crafted the definitive account of the history of poverty finance, skilfully revealing its entanglements with the uneven development of capitalism'

Susanne Soederberg, Professor of Global Political Economy at Queen's University, Canada

‘In this outstanding history of poverty finance, Nick Bernards show that financial exclusion persists not because of a lack of design or fancy technology but because the problem of uneven development is persistent and structural’

Andrew Leyshon, Emeritus Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Nottingham

'A much-needed book that should be read by anyone interested in the expansion of finance into everyday life. Rich with empirical details and comprehensive in its theoretical engagement with the interrelationship between finance and social justice, it throws into sharp relief how impoverished the conception of poverty reduction is when it relies on financial inclusion to improve welfare of people'

Johnna Montgomerie, Professor of International Political Economy at King's College London

'In this exemplary study, Nick Bernards shows why so many were seduced into wrongly believing that poverty finance might be the key to eradicating global poverty. In fact, its deployment was about advancing the narrow enrichment priorities of the powerful. A major contribution in the study of the politics of finance'

Milford Bateman, author of 'Why Doesn't Microfinance Work? The Destructive Rise of Local Neoliberalism'