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Client Protection in the Age of Fintech: New Standards Promote Best Practices in Digital Finance
Technology has vast potential to improve lives, and fintech is no exception – but it also has some clear risks and downsides. And linking a complex industry like digital finance with client protection is no easy task. Lucia Spaggiari at MFR and Isabelle Barres at Accion’s Smart Campaign explore their organizations’ joint efforts to tackle this challenge through new client protection standards for digital credit providers. They invite people to provide input on these draft standards during the six-week public comment period, which runs until March 22.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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The Promise of Psychometric-Based Credit Scoring in Financial Inclusion
Many lenders are using alternative data to improve their credit models and better serve the underbanked. But though this data is usually finance related, non-financial data can also be uniquely useful in reaching new customers, says Innovative Assessments CEO Saul Fine. He explores how psychometric testing can provide insights into the personal character traits that define reliable borrowers, and how this can help lenders maintain good loan performance – while serving customers whose traditional credit histories might otherwise exclude them.
- Categories
- Finance
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Immigrants Create Jobs – Small Loans Can Help: New Research on the Impact of Supporting Underserved Entrepreneurs
Did you know that immigrants and their children have helped found 60 percent of the most highly valued tech companies in the U.S. (currently worth $3.8 trillion)? That statistic highlights a fact that’s being lost in the immigration debate: Recent immigrants are natural entrepreneurs, who create jobs and economic growth for themselves, their families and their communities. Opportunity Fund’s vice president, Gwendy Brown, explores new research showing how small loans can help immigrants and other underserved entrepreneurs build their businesses and maximize their impact.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance, Investing
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Press release: Mines Secures $13M Series A to Grow Digital Credit Platform for Emerging Markets
"There are more than 3 billion adults globally without access to credit. Our vision is that every one of them will have instant access to credit in the next 10 years." explains Ekechi Nwokah, Mines CEO. "We believe the best way to realize this vision is to partner with banks, retailers and mobile operators and power digital credit products tailored to their markets so they can create the customers of tomorrow, today.”
- Source
- Press release
- Categories
- Finance
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Step by Step Credit: Empowering the Unbanked through Progressive Finance
Despite notable progress in the financial inclusion sector, widespread, permanent change remains elusive. The good news, says Aristotle Socrates at Juvo, is that not only is this change possible, but everything we need to make it happen already exists. In fact, it might be as easy as setting aside long-held assumptions about the role of wealth and income in establishing credit. He outlines how improved data infrastructure is connecting lenders to creditworthy customers, producing big gains for both providers and the financially excluded in the developing world.
- Categories
- Finance
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Press release: Experian: 78 percent of lenders believe alternative credit data improves financial inclusion
First-ever State of Alternative Credit Data report says lenders believe factoring in alternative credit data allows greater access to credit, consumers willing to provide additional information if it increases chances of approval or better terms
- Region
- North America
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Behavioural Nudges: Mildly Paternalistic or a Threat to Economic Justice for the Poor?
"Nudges” – ie: the use of behavioral science insights to steer human behavior – are increasingly seen as a cheap and effective way to achieve social goals. But according to social researcher Sally Brooks, there are some troubling questions about whether the use of nudges for business purposes is good for the poor. She explores the issue through the prism of digital financial inclusion in the era of fintech and big data.
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Vikram Pandit’s PE firm invests $100 million into financial inclusion credit card
Fair Square Financial has received a $100 million equity investment from the Orogen Group to fund a credit card designed for underserved U.S. consumer segments.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- North America
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