Fintech Solutions as a Vehicle to Expand Financial Inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean
Fintech solutions and digital banking services offer a unique opportunity to serve previously underbanked individuals and SMEs. Though most commercial banks are adopting these solutions, there is an opportunity to deepen the collaboration with Fintech firms in order to close financial inclusion gaps in the region, while promoting responsible finance practices.
International Women’s Day: more than a day for women and men
Going beyond the day itself, International Women’s Day is an opportunity for all to commit to advancing gender equality and create real workplace inclusion. I challenge you to go one step further and make gender equality everyone’s business.
How Fintech Can Help Nanks Tackle Deforestation
Big data and geospatial technology are making it easier for banks to decrease risk when financing projects with potential environmental impacts. How? Our guest author, Luiz Amaral, Global Manager of WRI’s Global Forest Watch Commodities has the answer.
The region is evolving. So are we.
We are witnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the theme at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos. It represents the digital revolution, the rise of the collaborative economy and growth expectations that are exponential instead of linear. The economic transformations emerging from this revolution remind us that the business models of yesterday cannot build the business of tomorrow. It reminds us how quickly the world is evolving and how quickly the Latin American and Caribbean region is following this trend.
Overcoming stereotypes could save your business
By Susan Olsen, Lead Specialist, Opportunities for the Majority, IDB Difficulty accessing financing, poor infrastructure and incapacity to scale are cited as reasons why businesses that target the (BOP) fail. Yet, an unwillingness to overcome base of the pyramid stereotypes could easily be the most important explanation as to why some BoP-focused companies aren’t successful. Shattering stereotypes before starting an inclusive business model was the basis for a provocative panel that took place during the Inter-American Development Bank’s BASE III Forum in Mexico City.
Don’t let base of the pyramid millennials catch your company off guard
Hardly a day passes without a new article on how businesses are analyzing the needs, wants and spending trends of millennials. In the US alone, millennials (or Generation Y), those born between 1980 and 2000, represent 30 percent of the population. By 2025 they will be 75 percent of the workforce of this country. The impact that millennials are starting to have on the global economy, the environment, and politics is enormous. But “millennial mania” is dominated by studies, research and marketing efforts that focus on affluent individuals. Meanwhile, in Latin America and the Caribbean a market of 77 million low-income or base of the pyramid millennials goes almost unnoticed.