Can Fintech Make the World More Inclusive?

​Kalin Anev Janse, secretary general and a member of the management board of the European Stability Mechanism has written an excellent article exploring whether Fintech can make the world more inclusive.

Kailin makes a number of interesting points:

• Financial inclusion – making banking services accessible and affordable to everyone globally. Technology-based financial services have propelled innovation to “bank the unbanked” making daily financial operations accessible and user friendly for almost everyone – especially people who had no access to banks before.
• Emerging markets like China, Kenya and Indonesia are leapfrogging the developed world. So – how is fintech making the world more inclusive?
• People around the world have experienced first-hand the convenience that digitalised or mobile-based financial services have brought to our daily work and life. 
• There has been massive adoption of fintech in China with mobile payment widely used in China as an everyday payment method [NB WeChat is used on a daily basis to order and pay a taxi, simple lunchbox, buying event tickets and monitoring your health while you sleep - Poster: My first hand experience).
• Fintech adoption is somewhat slower in Europe.
• Financial inclusion has been a recurring theme of financial sector reforms that the IMF and World Bank and is especially important in emerging markets, like Asia, Africa and South America; where it encourages access to formal financial services at affordable costs that can boost an economy’s overall growth and welfare. Often those targeted – families and small- and mid-sized companies – have either no or only very limited access to financial services. 
• To speed financial inclusion, the World Bank and the IMF launched the Bali Fintech Agenda comprising of 12 high-level principles to guide member states in elaborating appropriate policies to harness the benefits of what fintech can offer to bank the unbanked while mitigating any inherent risks. 

​Encourage you to read the full article at the link below. 

Source: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/can-fintech-make-the-world-more-inclusive/. Consider following the author on twitter @whartonknows 

Posted by Peter Oakes (www.peteroakes.com / Twitter @oakeslaw @US_Fintech @FintechUK_HQ @FintechIreland)
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See also www.UKFintech.com www.FintechIreland.com