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From Biometrics to Chatbots: Two Technology Challenges Aim to Help Governments Digitize their Economies
There is a growing consensus that emerging-market governments should digitize their economies, starting with the vast streams of payments they themselves make and receive. The DFS Lab is launching two technology challenges to fund new technologies that enable this transition: a Biometrics Challenge and a Chatbots Challenge. The deadline to enter is May 30.
- Categories
- Technology
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Brazil’s fintech boom offers new vertical opportunities for investors
In Latin America and Brazil, a lack of banking services has created a boom for entrepreneurs and investors seeking to build lucrative fintech innovators there. While 85 percent of Brazilians now live in cities, 40 percent remain excluded from traditional banking systems, according to São Paulo-based Itaú Unibanco, the largest private bank in Latin America.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Vodacom strikes $2.6B deal for Safaricom stake
Combined, Vodacom said it will now have 32 million customers in the space, “making it a formidable player in financial services on the continent”. The deal also gives Vodacom a significant footprint in Kenya.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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E-payments to dethrone cash
“There is a clear correlation between the share of electronic payments and the opportunity for GDP growth,” Tim Murphy, general counsel and chief franchise officer for MasterCard, told The Post on the forum’s sidelines. “With every 1 percent increase in the share of electronic payments of a country’s personal expenditure, you can see somewhere between a third and a half of a percentage point increase in GDP.”
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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This cryptocurrency project is now courting banks
The company said in a press release that by utilizing Stellar’s open-source network, it will be able to power payments between financial institutions and enable “seamless exchange between currencies, and let anyone build low-cost financial services.”
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- North America
- Tags
- fintech
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Safaricom Launches M-Pesa Card for Point-of-Sale Payments
Already, the leading mobile service provider has signed up 13,000 customers in Nakuru to the newly launched M-Pesa 1Tap service.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech, mobile finance
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Report: Leveraging digital to unlock the base of the pyramid market in Africa
The level of formal banking and insurance penetration across Africa remains low due to the fact that consumer spending power for the majority of the population is low and unsteady. This has been seen as a hindrance to providing products and services through traditional distribution models, even though this market represents the majority of spending power in Africa.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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ASEAN and the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Speaking at the forum’s opening, Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc urged his fellow leaders to ensure the region’s massive youth population is properly equipped for the jobs of tomorrow. “The Fourth Industrial Revolution, with its new technologies, will pose new opportunities and challenges to ASEAN.”
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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