Dr. Pal Vik

Current positions

Senior Research Fellow

Biography

I am a senior research fellow and director at Community Finance Solutions, a research unit focusing on financial inclusion and microfinance. I specialize in the nature of financial exclusion, the effectiveness of financial inclusion interventions, and the impact and sustainability of microfinance initiatives. Over the past 15 years, I have worked on over 40 projects for local government, foundations and EU institutions, including European Commission, Friends Provident Foundation, Toynbee Hall, Foundation Scotland, Carnegie UK Trust, Leeds City Council and Manchester City Council. I have written over a dozen academic papers, including conference papers and journal articles. I was awarded the 2017 Reg Mathews Memorial Prize for a paper on SROI and the European Microcredit Research Award in 2008 for a paper on the sustainability of the UK CDFI sector.

Areas of research

Financial inclusion, Microfinance

Areas of supervision

Microfinance (e.g., impact, governance, risk management, sustainability), Financial inclusion (e.g., use and access to financial services, determinants, impact), Financial education (e.g., discourse, impact, policy)