On October 27-29, 2021, Innovations for Poverty Action and the Global Poverty Research Lab (GPRL) at Northwestern University hosted the 2021 Annual Researcher Gathering.

Social media data is emerging as a tool for consumer protection market monitoring in financial services (see IPA’s multi-country analysis of social media data here).In this webinar, held by Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) on October 20, 2021 researchers Jonathan Fu and Mrinal Mishra shared how they are using machine learning to detect predatory or fraudulent FinTech apps.Utilizing FinTech app information and consumer reviews from the Google Play Store in India, Nigeria, and the Philippines, Fu and Mishra identify common traits that might indicate an app is likely to be a scam app and to build predictive models for improving vetting and monitoring moving forward.