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India prime minister says financial tech needs to be a ‘movement’ — not a ‘mechanism’
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that development of financial technology, or fintech, should be a movement that can improve the lives of the world's most marginalized people.
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- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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The Digital Transformation: Four Opportunities and Three Threats for Traditional Financial Institutions
Digital finance can reduce the annual cost of serving customers by up to 80 percent – one reason why financial services providers are embracing it. As MicroSave founder Graham Wright sees it, this race toward digitization is creating a watershed moment for financial and social inclusion. The sector’s decisions now will determine whether it will contribute to truly inclusive economies – or create a growing digital divide. Wright explores four ways this transformation could help financial services providers and their customers – along with three major pitfalls they must avoid.
- Categories
- Finance
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Virtusa launches API Exchange for financial inclusion
The platform will include an online global FinTech marketplace and sandbox platform. APIX will accelerate financial services innovation and inclusion by enabling collaboration between financial institutions and FinTech innovators.
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- Finance, Technology
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Press release: Citi and Banco Guayaquil Sign $20 Million Loan Agreement Benefiting Microfinance in Ecuador
With over 520,000 previously-unbanked clients that now have “Amiga Accounts” and a $70m loan book to finance microenterprises, Banco Guayaquil’s “Banco del Barrio” is one of the pioneering and most comprehensive inclusive finance programs in Latin America, significantly expanding access to financial services in Ecuador by leveraging a network of more than 4,400 non-bank customer touchpoints across the country.
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- Finance
- Region
- Latin America
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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.
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Press release: Fintech activity in Latin America spreads to 18 countries
The report provides data which, while illustrating the challenges that the industry faces, also reflects an inevitable transformation of the financial sector and the role that entrepreneurs play in accelerating innovation and changing the way in which people have interacted until now with financial services.
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- Finance
- Region
- Latin America
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You Can’t Change What You Can’t See: Taking America’s Financial Health Pulse
Last week, a new FDIC survey revealed that the number of unbanked U.S. households has reached the lowest point since the survey started in 2009. Meanwhile, advances in fintech and a strong overall economy suggest that the financial prospects of most Americans should be looking up. But as Center for Financial Services Innovation president Jennifer Tescher points out, the story is not that simple. In reality, she says, a massive number of Americans are struggling financially. She explores this and other troubling findings in the U.S. Financial Health Pulse, a landmark new study that aims to show the true picture of Americans’ financial lives.
- Categories
- Finance
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Press release: MicroVest Capital Management Announces the Closing of a $20mm Credit Facility with MetLife Investment Management
The credit line enables MicroVest to better manage liquidity of the fund to deploy more capital, more quickly, to the places that need it the most. Per MicroVest’s stated mission, these are often microfinance institutions in emerging and frontier markets that have few other means of accessing capital to promote financial inclusion within their markets.
- Categories
- Finance
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