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The ‘Strange Bedfellows’ Myth: How Fintechs and Financial Institutions Can Partner for Mutual Benefit – And Greater Financial Inclusion
The classic tech-meets-tradition narrative often portrays fintechs and established financial institutions as natural adversaries. But research from the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) and the Institute of International Finance found quite the opposite to be true. CFI's Sonja E. Kelly explores the report's findings, which detail the surprising scope for collaboration among these players – and the potential impact on low-income customers.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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Revolutionizing Payday: Mobile Money’s Transformative Impact on Liberia’s Public Workers
Imagine if every time you picked up your paycheck, you had to navigate a long and dangerous ride, deal with endless lines and cash shortages at the bank, and pay expensive fees and bribes – a process that cost you several work days and up to 15 percent of your salary. That used to be the situation facing health and education workers in Liberia, but the government’s innovative use of mobile money has turned things around. Erica Bustinza of FHI 360 oversees the program that made this possible, and she discusses its impact.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Does Digital Finance Really Address Low-Income Customers’ Needs?
Digital financial services are proliferating across the developing world, yet providers are having trouble coming up with products that meet low-income customers where they live. For instance, for a rural customer, how can a stagnant digital savings account compete with a productive egg-laying hen? Maha Khan and Annabel Schiff, representing the newly formed Mastercard Foundation Partnership for Finance in a Digital Africa, unveil new research exploring how digital financial services can meet people's needs alongside more traditional services.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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Press release: TRANSFAST Partners With Bangladesh BRAC Bank and bKash Mobile Wallet for Global Money Transfers
Bangladeshi expatriates around the world can now send cross-border remittances to bKash Mobile Wallet users at any of TRANSFAST'S 200,000 payout locations in more than 120 countries. The funds can be either cashed out via bKash agent locations in Bangladesh, or can be utilized to make person to person fund transfers, top-up mobile airtime, pay bills, and shop in-store. TRANSFAST is the first money transfer company to partner with bKash to provide this service in Bangladesh.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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Malware threatens India’s mobile banking revolution
Digital transactions, currently running around 900 billion rupees ($14 billion) a month, are a tempting target for cyberthieves, who have created malware targeting digital banking customers.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Ant Financial and the Greening of Fintech
The fintech boom has certainly re-shaped the way business is done and fashioned societal shifts in China’s consumer market; it is changing behaviors. Can the fintech boom also create opportunities to help spur sustainable development?
- Categories
- Environment, Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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China’s cryptocurrency crackdown cost bitcoin company BTCC tens of millions in revenue: ‘It was in the realm of our worst possibility’
BTCC founder and CEO Bobby Lee told Business Insider: "We always knew it was a risk that the Chinese government would look unfavourably on bitcoin and put some strong rules around it.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- cryptocurrency, fintech
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Expanding Financial Access Means Expanding Security – How ‘Tokenization’ Could Be the Key
When Experian was hacked last fall, the breach exposed the social security numbers of 143 million people in the U.S. Shortly thereafter, in South Africa, approximately 30 million citizens' identity numbers and financial information were hacked and leaked on the internet. As more people in emerging economies are equipped with personal identification numbers for digital financial services, the need for securing sensitive data grows exponentially. Suresh Rajagopalan of FSS touts tokenization as a remedy – and outlines some challenges it presents.
- Categories
- Finance
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