The Financial Industry Needs to Start Planning for the Next 50 Years, Not the Next Five

Despite rapid innovations in data processing and machine learning, many businesses have yet to make the leap from the Industrial Age to the information age, and the gap between technological and organizational progress is widening. Closing this gap requires much more than short-term fixes, like adopting new technologies. Businesses need to organize around long-term strategies for growth and partnership in a sustainable way. The consequences for not doing so can be dire.

Eastman Kodak is the textbook case for failing to prioritize an innovation agenda; business schools around the world study the ramifications of the company’s ill-fated decision to ignore…

For the last two decades, many organizations — from financial institutions and philanthropic organizations to think tanks — have embraced the concept of financial inclusion. They’ve reckoned that the billions of people who exist outside the formal banking sector worldwide would benefit from new services, solutions and investments to stimulate productivity, raise living standards, unleash entrepreneurial energy and reduce economic inequality.

While the aims of financial inclusion remain relevant today, the current solution set is outdated. The framework for building financial solutions must evolve from one of inclusion — siloed point solutions that provide access to checking accounts, payments solutions…

The Digital Development Divide: the next ten years

Nadeem Shaikh

There has recently been a piece of academic research in the Communications Theory space that the Fintech industry might like to take a note of. You can read the whole of the article here: it suffers under the cumbersome academic title: The Social Relativity of Digital Exclusion: Applying Relative Deprivation Theory to Digital Inequalities. There is a lot in here that only other academic researchers will really understand or care about. But there is also much for entrepreneurs to ponder as well. …

Balance is the key to Financial Wellness

The concept of financial wellness isn’t a new one to the financial services industry. So why aren’t we seeing a greater commitment on the part of investors to fund early stage companies whose explicit mission is to improve consumers’ financial wellbeing?

Perhaps it is because financial wellness doesn’t fit neatly into a single box — or generation. As recent academic research has shown, a healthy financial outlook correlates closely to physical and mental health, a sense of purpose, work-life balance, and other related concerns.