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Telenor Group and Ant Financial in strategic partnership to deliver inclusive financial services in Pakistan
Telenor Group has reached a strategic partnership agreement with Ant Financial Services Group ("Ant Financial") in Pakistan, where Ant Financial will invest USD 184.5m for a 45% stake in Telenor Microfinance Bank ("TMB"), a subsidiary of Telenor Group, to further develop TMB's mobile payment and digital financial services.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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The Tortoise and the Hare: India and China Put Different Paths to Digital Finance to the Test
In 2016, some US$18 trillion changed hands via non-bank digital payment transactions in China – a value larger than its GDP. Meanwhile, though its population is roughly the same, India's digital finance industry has lagged far behind. But thanks to new digital infrastructure and evolving regulations, this situation is changing fast. Like the tortoise in Aesop’s fable, will India catch up with China, which has bounded ahead at hare-like speed? David Porteous at the Digital Frontiers Institute explores the two countries' approaches and their implications for other emerging markets.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Mastercard Targets Emerging Markets With Mobile-Payments Acquisition
More than 80% of the world's purchases are still made using cash. Mastercard thinks mobile payments technology might hold the answer to digitizing those transactions.
- Categories
- Finance
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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announces $170 mln investment to boost women’s economic empowerment
The investments, focussed in India, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, are aimed at advancing gender equality, spreading digital financial inclusion, increasing job opportunities, and supporting the agricultural sector
- Categories
- Investing
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Launch of the 2017 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money
With 690 million registered accounts worldwide, mobile money has evolved into the leading payment platform for the digital economy in many emerging markets.
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- digital finance, fintech
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Pakistan Post, National Bank of Pakistan sign a Memorandum of Understanding to boost digital financial services
Pakistan Post and National Bank of Pakistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) here at ECO Postal Staff College Auditorium to boost Digital Financial Services in the country through a huge network of 12,000 Post Offices countrywide as well as to achieve the target of the State Bank of Pakistan for strengthening National Financial Inclusion Strategy extending Digital Financial Services to 50% population of Pakistan by the year 2020.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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Can Amazon Go help the unbanked go digital?
From a turnstile entrance that identifies shoppers by scanning their smartphones to tracking cameras that know what is pulled from each shelf, Amazon Go bills itself as the shopping experience of the future.
But where do the working poor fit into such a future? Or otherwise underserved and rural communities that may not have access to internet connections, smartphones or even checking accounts?- Categories
- Technology
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Mercy Corps and Mastercard Take Fintech to Farmers
Humanitarian agency Mercy Corps is partnering with Mastercard Foundation to push for adoption of technology to benefit millions of small-scale Kenyan farmers for better food production and ending perennial shortages.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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