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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
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Billion-dollar tech startups hold promise for China’s economy
Chinese tech companies listed in China and Hong Kong have seen their shares plunge this year, amid a market shakeout. But while the Shanghai Composite Index is down about 20% since the beginning of 2018, analysts say that there is still appetite for good startups.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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New Income Tax in Rwanda Causing Major Financial Strain for Many Mobile Money Agents
More than 7 million Rwandans do their banking through their cellphones, but many of the agents who facilitate the banking transactions never declared their income to the country’s tax authority. Now the tax authority has started taking a 15-percent withholding tax from these agents’ incomes with the cellphone provider, plunging some of these agents into financial turmoil.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Africa’s dominant mobile money service is going global
M-Pesa’s over 23 million active subscribers in Kenya will also be able to send and receive money through their phones and be connected to WU’s 500,000 global agents.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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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.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Latin America
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Zimbabwe to review mobile money tax after backlash
Using official 2017 statistics on total mobile money transaction value, the tax hike increases government takings from the service by almost ten times.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech, public policy
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Safaricom and Western Union sign money transfer deal
Mpesa customers will be able to send and receive money at any Western Union centers across the world after Safaricom and Western Union inked a money transfer deal.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech, remittances