Last year, investments in financial technology, or fintech, hit an all-time high. But while entrepreneurs and investors tend to focus on products and services to promote financial inclusion in emerging markets, investments in the ecosystems those innovations need to succeed risk being overlooked.
Here are some of the gaps that remain to ensure that rapid advances in mobile communications and digital payments realize their potential social impact and reach the 2.5 billion people who lack access to formal financial services.
“We need to think about access as we think about financial services,” Kurtis Heimerl, whose community cellular networks company Endaga was acquired by Facebook, said at a recent event on financial technology for global development hosted by the Center for Effective Global Action at Google in San Francisco.
Read more stories on financial inclusion:
► Anatomy of a mobile banking collaboration
► Competitive collaboration behind new mobile banking model in Peru
About the author
Catherine Cheneycatherinecheney
Catherine Cheney is the Senior Editor for Special Coverage at Devex. She leads the editorial vision of Devex’s news events and editorial coverage of key moments on the global development calendar. Catherine joined Devex as a reporter, focusing on technology and innovation in making progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to joining Devex, Catherine earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University, and worked as a web producer for POLITICO, a reporter for World Politics Review, and special projects editor at NationSwell. She has reported domestically and internationally for outlets including The Atlantic and the Washington Post. Catherine also works for the Solutions Journalism Network, a non profit organization that supports journalists and news organizations to report on responses to problems.
