Fintech, Open Source, and Emerging Markets

Chapter 5. The Rebounding Effect for Banking as a Platform

The industry needs to shift—and is shifting—from serving only the top of the world economic pyramid to serving the entire pyramid. There is a concerted effort to make this happen and trends are all in alignment. Many organizations are now discovering that financial benefits and humanitarian values are not incompatible. They are rethinking their risk-reward models for these markets in more comprehensive ways. In our new digitally connected world, everyone should have access to data and to the financial marketplace. In our Internet of Things (IoT) future, global commerce is growing and pushing us beyond the limitations of traditional financial services.

Mobile banking and the mobile phone have already played a pivotal role in financial inclusion in Africa making lives better for the local populations. This is happening very fast and in ways that are impossible to anticipate or measure at the same time (Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle about position and momentum at play). Bigger business opportunities are on the horizon. Developing a pan-African money transfer and payments ecosystem within and between countries, a fully interconnected platform for the African continent, cross-border, cross-currency, and cross-network, while dependent on improved infrastructure, could have an even more dramatic impact on people’s lives. But banks also stand to benefit financially and otherwise from such developments, as they drive momentum ...