Welcome to today’s faiVLive Webinar. With a group of expert panelists from around the world, we delve into the possibilities for FinTech to serve the poor and reduce inequality. Six years after McKinsey heralded “a new era of digital globalization,” what have we learned about when, and where, FinTech meaningfully advances inclusion, and when it creates a new (digital) divide? When does FinTech (in the words of Greg Chen of CGAP, during this edition of the faiVLive) build a bridge and when does it dig a moat?
We also explore how expectations seem to differ from place to place: while FinTech in developing countries is generally presumed to be pro-poor, in wealthier countries there is more skepticism that digital innovations will advance inclusion for the poorest in society. Why is that? What are appropriate expectations of FinTech innovation? Should we be more skeptical of FinTech in countries with large inclusion gaps? Should we be less skeptical of new business models and tech-enabled services in wealthy countries?
To watch the recording of this live event, moderated by FAI’s Managing Director Tim Ogden, click here.
Featuring our Panelists
Lois Bruu, Vice President, Humanitarian & Development at Mastercard
Olayinka David-West, Associate Dean and Professor of Information Systems, Lagos Business School
Timothy Flacke, Executive Director, Commonwealth
Barbara Magnoni, President, EA Global/ Noahui Soluciones
Tavneet Suri, Professor of Applied Economics, MIT/ VoxDev/ J-PAL
Reading and Resources for Today’s faiVLive
Fintech for the Financially Excluded?, by Ximena Escobar de Nogales, SSIR, April 26, 2018,
How Can Fintech Serve the Poor? A Q&A with CGAP CEO Greta Bull, by Kate Beasley, Next Billion, April 2, 2019
Perpetual Debt in the Silicon Savannah, by Kevin P. Donovan and Emma Park, September 20, 2019
Fintech for the Poor: Financial Intermediation Without Discrimination by Prasanna Tantri, Review of Finance, March 2021
PayPal CEO Dan Schulman: Why digital currencies will make the economy more inclusive, Fortune, March 30, 2021
Using Shame, Lending Apps in India Squeeze Billions Out of the Desperate, New York Times, March 27, 2021
Fulfilling the Promise of FinTech: The Case for a Nonprofit Vision and Leadership, The Aspen Institute, September 11, 2018
The FinTech Debt Trap, by Alyssa Katz, The Intercept, August 30 2020
Why with such robust evidence isn’t digital finance more ubiquitous across poor countries? By Seth Garz, April 4, 2021
Testing financial innovations: Increasing loan repayment using digital collateral, VoxDev, June 18, 2021