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Speaking at Innovate Finance’s virtual panel for UK Fintech Week 2020, Alicia Levine, COO, Chipper Cash, believes that now is the time for regulators to step up and provide fintech companies with a clear path toward regulated activity.

“It is obviously difficult to work across multiple countries that all have different regulatory policies in place. However, given the current Covid-19 crisis, governments and regulators should take the opportunity to move quickly to allow fintechs and digital financial services providers to build a clear path toward regulation.”

While recognising that certain countries or regions may typically face regulatory hurdles to direct licensing and regulation, Levine argued that the urgency and essential nature of digital financial services has meant regulators must see the benefit in prioritising these services.

The panel agreed that situations such as Covid-19 illustrate how essential digital finance has become for those in challenging socio-economic circumstances. As many as one in nine people around the world rely on payments sent home from migrant workers abroad using such digital tools, and these international firms are actively targeting the needs of the underbanked across the world.

Photo courtesy of Rory.