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Nigeria’s Central Bank could hamstring local fintech startups with costly new regulation
In a draft policy document, CBN recognized products by fintech companies are “gaining acceptance” but argued their emergence would heighten existing risks in the financial system.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech, public policy, regulations, startups
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U.S. House panel to look at finance sector’s diversity, inclusion
Promoting financial inclusion could be good news for fintech firms, credit unions and community banks by opening up avenues for smaller financial institutions into communities that may have been neglected in the past.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- North America
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The New Face of Poverty: Why Unemployment isn’t the Issue – And How Financial Inclusion Can Help
When you think about poverty, what does it look like? Many people might picture an undernourished African child, or an elderly beggar sitting in the street. But as Oakam CEO Frederic Nze explains, the reality can be far different. Poverty today often involves the struggles of the working poor, and it’s defined less by extreme deprivation and more by lack of access – to clean water, to power, to basic education, and increasingly to the internet. Nze explores the implications of this shift for the financial inclusion and development sectors.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
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The Future of Fintech is Now: Takeaways from Harvard’s Rethinking Financial Inclusion 2018
Those looking to technology to boost financial inclusion should stay focused on problems rather than solutions. That may sound counterintuitive, but Michael Fryar at Harvard's Evidence for Policy Design cautions that it's tantalizingly easy to treat fresh tech like a shiny new hammer and every problem as a nail. Fryar discusses this and other key insights from the recent "Rethinking Financial Inclusion" program at Harvard Kennedy School.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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IMF Head Says Central Banks Should Look At Issuing Digital Currency
According to the Financial Times, as it stands now, central banks are divided on how to respond to the increase in digital payments and digital tokens.
- Categories
- Finance
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MTN is planning to launch its mobile money service in Nigeria next year
The company will apply for a mobile banking license in Nigeria and plans a launch of its mobile money service in Africa’s largest economy in the second quarter of next year, its CEO said at a trade show in Cape Town on Tuesday (Nov.13).
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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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.
- Categories
- 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