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PayPal Joins Indonesian Venture Firm to Develop Fintech Startups
PayPal Holdings Inc. is teaming up with Indonesian venture-capital firm Alpha JWC Ventures to back emerging financial technologies that can be developed for Southeast Asia.
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Viewpoint: Lessons from China’s mobile payments revolution
There is no disputing that China is ahead of the rest of the world in mobile payments. What insight does it offer U.S. bankers?
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Is Universal Financial Access Still Possible?
The most recent Global Findex survey shows 515 million adults have opened bank accounts since 2014. While that's good progress, Daniel Monehin, who heads Financial Inclusion for Mastercard, points out that owning an account is just the first step towards financial inclusion - the real value comes with being able to use it in a safe and convenient way. That's why universal financial access must go hand-in-hand with efforts to drive usage, writes Monehin, who urges the sector to focus on people, products and partnerships.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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A Test Case for Digital Leap-Frogging: What the Financial Inclusion Community Can Learn from Vietnam
With its rapid economic expansion, large unbanked population, high mobile penetration and progressive regulations, Vietnam has the potential to leap-frog over brick-and-mortar banking and arrive directly at the forefront of digital finance. Krishna Thacker of MetLife Foundation in Asia profiles an emerging innovator in the country's mobile payments space, and explores lessons learned in driving the uptake of digital financial services.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Digitizing the Base of the Pyramid: The Impact of Bringing Digital Finance to Last-Mile Farmers
Only 5 percent of Rwanda’s dairy farmers have access to credit, due in part to their lack of proof of income and inability to build a financial history. That’s why N-Frnds, a cloud-based software platform, partnered with the Rwandan government to digitize the milk collection process. Alyssa Mesich of N-Frnds recounts how the partnership has impacted milk production and boosted financial inclusion – results that suggest the vast potential impact of digitizing value chain-based financial services for last-mile farmers globally.
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- Agriculture, Finance, Technology
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Solar firm Angaza wins Sh125m innovation award
The platform has helped digital finance service providers fill the market gaps that traditional brick-and-mortar financial institutions avoid in impoverished urban centres and rural communities.
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- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Can Tech Humanize Microfinance? An Unexpected Benefit of Going Digital
Shuffling through papers while standing at a pho vendor’s street stall. Asking customers the same questions over and over again every loan cycle. CEP’s staff and clients constantly dealt with such frustrations until the Vietnam-based microfinance institution rolled out an app that digitized the loan and repayment process. Laura Cojocaru and Kelly Nguyen of BFA report on how the technology not only saves time, but helps loan officers connect on a more personal level with clients.
- Categories
- Finance
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Failure to Thrive: Nigeria’s Digital Financial Services Industry is Struggling – Can These Policy Solutions Help?
Nigeria leads all other emerging economies with 21 licensed mobile money operators. But high levels of unbanked and underbanked citizens have led to poor adoption rates for digital financial services. The Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Financial Services (SIDFS) initiative of the Lagos Business School has been studying ways to improve customer access and product development. In recently published research, Olayinka David-West and Ubukun Taiwo, both of LBS, reveal six policy recommendations for regulators that could help DFS to thrive in Nigeria.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications