MANILA — The Asian Development Bank is aiming to be “more strategic” in the integration of financial technologies in its projects and programs, according to the bank’s finance sector group chief.
The bank has been supporting its member countries in modernizing their payment systems to expand citizens’ and small and medium enterprises’ access to finance, often difficult for those living in remote rural areas where financial institutions are hard-pressed to maintain services due to high costs and inaccessibility. But it has not often been the main focus, and the way the bank had done this had not been very systematic.
“It was in the design stage, but it was not so strategic because the whole fintech is so new. You know a project is approved, then it runs for three to five years. So the few years you go, fintech is not really on the radar,” Lotte Schou-Zibell, who is also technical advisor for finance in ADB’s sustainable development and climate change department, told Devex following the conclusion of the 2nd Asia Finance Forum: FinTech and Sustainable Development that took place at the ADB headquarters in Manila.