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Chinese money dominates bitcoin, now its companies are gunning for blockchain tech
I meet Jack Liao, who runs a bitcoin mining firm called Lightning Asic. He leads me through a dark hutong, coming to a set of carved wooden double-doors. Pushing them open, we enter into the courtyard of a palatially renovated villa. This is my first look at the elusive “bitcoin club.”
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- blockchain, cryptocurrency, fintech
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Mobile subscriptions hit 40 million mark in Kenya, says Communication Authority
The number of mobile subscriptions in the country have risen to 40.2 million, the Communication Authority of Kenya reported on Friday
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Why Gyms Love January: Leveraging Behavioral Economics for Financial Health
People are famously irrational when it comes to financial matters. We can't seem to resist wasting money on things that we know aren't beneficial. Why do we make self-defeating financial decisions, and how can we be persuaded to change them? Evelyn Stark, financial inclusion lead at MetLife Foundation, discusses the ways financial service providers are leveraging behavioral science to help their clients spend less and save more, in the latest NextBillion podcast.
- Categories
- Finance
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IMF Releases the 2017 Financial Access Survey, Tracking Access to Financial Services
FAS data show progress in two indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals: the number of bank branches and automated teller machines (ATMs), with most of the growth concentrated in Asia. However, some other regions still lag in these financial access dimensions.
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- financial inclusion, fintech, SDGs
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Ecobank launches mVisa across 33 African Countries
Ecobank has partnered with Visa to launch Ecobank Scan+Pay with mVisa solutions to their consumers. The strategic tie-up signals interoperability on a cross border level - and potentially huge gains - as it affords consumers with the ability to use their mobile phone to directly access the funds in their bank accounts to pay person-to-merchant (P2M) or person-to-person (P2P).
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press release: MyBucks Named ‘Best Financial Inclusion Company’ at European FinTech Awards 2017
Luxembourg-based and Frankfurt-listed fintech, MyBucks S.A., was announced as the winner of the Award for ‘Best European Financial Inclusion Company’ at the European Fintech Awards 2017 taking place in Brussels, Belgium.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
- Tags
- fintech
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‘Cross-sell Done Well’: How One Finance App Found a Balance Between Digital and Human Touch
Field officers at the Sajida Foundation, a microfinance provider in Bangladesh, knew their clients had rich financial lives, and that some held sizable savings balances to enable their goals. They also knew these clients could earn more by converting their savings to a term deposit account. Yet it was difficult for them to offer complex financial advice, or to answer questions around tiered interest rates and differentiated products. The Foundation worked with BFA to develop an Android-based app to address these issues – Ashirul Amin discusses the lessons learned.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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How Fintech and Payments Innovations Will Disrupt Global Ecommerce
With the growth of international ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Magento and payment platforms like PayPal and Stripe, the barriers to ecommerce are crumbling, giving life to new businesses, opening up new revenue streams for established players, facilitating economic trade, and driving technology advancements worldwide.
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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