Case Studies

I just hosted a conference in Africa and you cannot attend a conference in Africa without financial inclusion, mobile wallets and microfinance coming up. It’s always on the agenda and top of mind, because most Africans have been excluded from financial services to date. In particular, focusing upon Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)*, which includes Kenya, Nigeria,…

I am very taken by the articulate and charismatic Jack Ma. Not because he’s one of the richest men in the world, but more because of his experiences and beliefs. If you haven’t listened to his interviews and thoughts at this years World Economic Summit, then I’d recommend you take the time out to do…

I spotted two stories about BBVA that appeared yesterday. The first was in the Financial Times with BBVA Chairman Francisco Gonzalez asking the G20 to take action against the big internet firms, saying “authorities [need] to bring order to this massive change” that could “pose risks to financial stability”. He warns that groups such as…

Talking of banks not being trusted, do we have reasons to mis-trust them? Yes, many. Not only are many banks regularly called out for bad behaviour, but some have gone to the extremes of forging customers signatures. Then there has been the UK’s PPI scandal and Wells Fargo’s false account openings, and now there is…

I’ve written a lot about Ant Financial – they’re a 30,000 word case study in my new book – mainly because they are the first payments platform to focus upon global reach for financial inclusion. That is not to say that I am ignoring the other platforms: PayPal, Stripe, PayTM and such like. In fact,…

I’ve been in touch with Colin Iles in South Africa for a while now. Formerly the head of client strategy at Barclays Africa (ABSA), he’s now been working on a new bank called Capitec. I say new, it’s actually been around for 17 years, but it is interesting that for a bank launched in 2001…

Another presentation that was enlightening was delivered by Jean Claude Gaga, CEO of RSwitch Ltd, the national e-payment switch of Rwanda. Jean Claude gave an overview of how Rwanda is moving towards a cashless economy and I was particularly interested as I chair Dot Finance in Kigali each year, and so it gave me a…

There were lots and lots and lots, literally, of focus upon mobile and financial inclusion in my Sudan conference. I guess because only 4% of the adults who live there are banked. You heard me, just four percent. There are over 20 million people of working or retirement age in the country, so that’s just…

I sometimes feel like a really, sad person. I wake up every day wondering what’s new with tech, FinTech, the world. I go to conferences and, instead of delivering my keynote speech and disappearing, normally hang around to hear the other presentations, as I might learn something. Equally, I sometimes get invited to speak at…

I wrote about the fact that digital transformation does not create greater shareholder value … yet … and then DBS announce that they are the first bank in the world to demonstrate the link between digitization and shareholder value creation on November 17. Interesting, as I blogged about this on November 16, inspired by an article…