On Labor Day, the governments of the United States and Canada recognize and celebrate the achievements and contributions of workers—female and male alike. And women’s economic contributions in these countries are well-documented: the increase in women in the U.S. labor force over the past several decades, for example, has led to more than $3.5 trillion in economic growth.
A recent article in the Financial Times (June 25, 2014) brings the topic and discussion around it back on the table. Psychometric tests as part of a credit analysis become increasingly popular, especially with commercial banks and large microfinance institutions.
Is the effort to become more technology savvy wasted effort, or can banks still appeal to a fintech-enabled customer? Story by Kevin Moseri.
While ‘Fintech 1.0’ and disruption made banks stop and take notice, ‘Fintech 2.0’ is all about letting banks in and allowing them to have a stake in the space. However, during Fintech 1.0, a lot of banks were forced to make what most in the industry saw as knee-jerk decisions, adopting questionable strategies. Most banks are still following the same strategies.
Most of the conversation around commerce and mobile wallets has been centered on the distribution of coupons and offers.
As you might remember, I wrote two blogs about alternative data, as an effective way to better score people with no or only a small credit history.
More than half of the world’s population lives in Asia and its robust growth is supporting the world economy. After weathering well the 2008 crisis Asia is now in the spotlight with currencies depreciating and capital markets in retreat. One widely voiced concern is rapid expansion of credit in the past decade fueled by abundant liquidity.
Nearly 20 years ago, the launch of online payments giant PayPal shook the financial services industry. Now, a new generation of financial technology or “fintech” companies is once again breaking down the oversized doors of the conservative banking business.
Smallholder farmers face particularly difficult challenges, including extremely limited or a total absence of financial services. This lack of financing, paired with the low productivity that has historically affected the agriculture sector in many developing economies, creates an opportunity for innovation and the use of mobile technology to improve multiple components of the agricultural value chain, including but not limited to insurance (the topic of a recent Mondato Insight), inputs, mechanization, extension, aggregation and marketing.
PayPal got into small-business lending almost two years ago as an add-on for its merchants, and in May the company said its total loans had surpassed $500 million, and that it was lending out $2 million a day in the U.S. alone. But with alternative financing expanding rapidly, and PayPal having an advantage with its captive audience of retailers, I wondered just how fast PayPal’s small-business lending was growing now.
