The Financial Inclusion Impact of Digitally Native Business Models

Webinar

17 May 2022 9:00 am - 10:00 am EDT

This event has concluded.

As CGAP has written about extensively, a new set of digitally native business models has emerged in financial services that are fundamentally reshaping the landscape. While we have described these models and their potential impact on financial inclusion, there has been little empirical research exploring this potential—until now. The session shared CGAP’s findings from a new set of demand-side research with digital banks, platforms, and fintechs (Tyme Bank, Grab, and Kaleidofin) across five countries. Our analysis of the results offer early insights into what impact the new business models are actually having on financial inclusion and the value they bring to people’s lives, as told by customers themselves. We discussed the findings and analysis with representatives from each provider and heard their perspectives on the value their models can offer for customers and what it means for the future of financial inclusion.

Key Resources

Webinar presentation >>

TymeBank Case Study: The Customer Impact of Inclusive Digital Banking [case study] >>

The Great Unbundling: How Technology Is Making Financial Services Modular and What It Means for Inclusion [reading deck] >>

How Fintech Is Unbundling Banking And What That Means For Financial Inclusion [video] >>

This event is part of CGAP's four-part series, "The Digital Evolution of Financial Services: What Have We Learned So Far?"

Speakers

	Rachel Freeman \| Chief Growth Officer, Tyme Tyme is the technology and solutions firm powering Tyme Bank, the first digital bank in South Africa with now 4.6 million customers, and GOtyme, our newly licensed bank in the Philippines. Rachel Freeman is an experienced and internationally recognized financial expert, particularly in the areas of financial inclusion and innovative financial technologies. Before joining Tyme, Ms. Freeman served as the IFC Financial Institutions Advisory Manager for Asia since 2014. In her role, she led IFC’s advisory program for existing and potential investee clients for value enhancement and development impact, to achieve IFC's goals in financial inclusion and climate change mitigation. Rachel led client solutions development and execution in SME finance, bank-fintech collaboration including the creation of the APIX Platform, MFI transformation, Banking on Women, agrifinance and climate change finance for strategic IFC clients. Since 2001 she had several senior positions at IFC in Central Asia, Africa and Asia. Prior to joining IFC, Rachel was involved in several entrepreneurial ventures in the US and Russia.
	Natasha Jethanandani \| CTO and Co-founder, Kaleidofin Natasha Jethanandani CTO and Co-founder of Kaleidofin, focused on making financial services inclusive, especially for the unbanked. Having been VP of Engineering at BankBazaar, building tech for financial services wasn’t new for Natasha. After gaining her Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science and Economics from Stanford University, Natasha worked with Fortune 100 companies like Microsoft and Google in the US leading engineering teams. She relocated to India and continued to pursue her dream of building strong tech to make an impact. As CTO, Natasha leads the Technology, Data Science and Product Management teams at Kaleidofin. She brings synergy to these roles and teams. As a tech-focused and data-oriented firm, she strives to constantly refine our algorithms, scale our architecture and making our platform accessible to every customer across India, especially those who are underserved today.
	Tom Adams \| Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, 60 Decibels Tom Adams is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of 60 Decibels, a social impact and customer intelligence company that helps organizations around the world better understand their customers, suppliers, and beneficiaries. Prior to co-founding 60 Decibels, Tom worked for 6 years as Acumen as Chief Impact Officer. In this role, Tom led the organization’s global work to understand the how and why of creating impact through patient capital investing. It was here he created Lean Data, a new approach for companies and investors to gather data to better understand their customers, grow their business and drive impact. Tom is also co-author of Growing Prosperity, and served as the Country Economist for DFID in Nigeria and was part of the senior management team for DFID's largest bilateral aid programme in Ethiopia.
	Nisha Singh \| Gender Transformative Technical Lead, FinEquity Nisha Singh is FinEquity's Gender Transformative Solutions Technical Lead. She has over 17 years of experience promoting access to finance and financial market systems development, with a focus on women’s economic empowerment and inclusion. Nisha worked at The SEEP Network from 2008 and 2016 to promote inclusive market systems development by building partnerships across the 120+ SEEP member organizations and associated stakeholders. Since 2017 her work has focused on increasing economic opportunities for women through innovations in financial services as well as gender mainstreaming for private sector actors.
	Ivo Jeník \| Senior Financial Sector Specialist, CGAP Ivo Jeník has 12 years of experience in finance, primarily in retail financial services regulation. He has led CGAP’s work on regulatory innovation (crowdfunding, regulatory sandboxes), capacity building for policy makers (regulation and supervision of digital financial services) and emerging business models in banking across continents. Before joining CGAP, Ivo worked in the Responsible Financial Access team at the World Bank, where he specialized in financial consumer protection and alternative dispute resolution. His professional experience spans across both the private and public sector, including serving as a compliance officer at an investment company and as Head of the Collective Investment Department at the Czech Financial Ombudsman.
	Peter Zetterli \| Senior Financial Sector Specialist, CGAP Peter Zetterli is a senior financial sector specialist and team lead for CGAP’s initiative on the future of financial services with nearly 20 years of experience promoting financial inclusion and private sector development. His work focuses on understanding what new business models are emerging thanks to technology innovation and how to harness it for broader and better financial access. The team has published extensively on the transformative potential of fintech, platforms, and digital banking models as well as the unbundling and embedding of financial services at www.cgap.org/fintech. Before joining CGAP in 2011, Peter worked for the United Nations in China and Sierra Leone on microfinance and business-led approaches to development.

	Rachel Freeman \| Chief Growth Officer, Tyme Tyme is the technology and solutions firm powering Tyme Bank, the first digital bank in South Africa with now 4.6 million customers, and GOtyme, our newly licensed bank in the Philippines. Rachel Freeman is an experienced and internationally recognized financial expert, particularly in the areas of financial inclusion and innovative financial technologies. Before joining Tyme, Ms. Freeman served as the IFC Financial Institutions Advisory Manager for Asia since 2014. In her role, she led IFC’s advisory program for existing and potential investee clients for value enhancement and development impact, to achieve IFC's goals in financial inclusion and climate change mitigation. Rachel led client solutions development and execution in SME finance, bank-fintech collaboration including the creation of the APIX Platform, MFI transformation, Banking on Women, agrifinance and climate change finance for strategic IFC clients. Since 2001 she had several senior positions at IFC in Central Asia, Africa and Asia. Prior to joining IFC, Rachel was involved in several entrepreneurial ventures in the US and Russia.
	Natasha Jethanandani \| CTO and Co-founder, Kaleidofin Natasha Jethanandani CTO and Co-founder of Kaleidofin, focused on making financial services inclusive, especially for the unbanked. Having been VP of Engineering at BankBazaar, building tech for financial services wasn’t new for Natasha. After gaining her Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science and Economics from Stanford University, Natasha worked with Fortune 100 companies like Microsoft and Google in the US leading engineering teams. She relocated to India and continued to pursue her dream of building strong tech to make an impact. As CTO, Natasha leads the Technology, Data Science and Product Management teams at Kaleidofin. She brings synergy to these roles and teams. As a tech-focused and data-oriented firm, she strives to constantly refine our algorithms, scale our architecture and making our platform accessible to every customer across India, especially those who are underserved today.
	Tom Adams \| Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, 60 Decibels Tom Adams is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of 60 Decibels, a social impact and customer intelligence company that helps organizations around the world better understand their customers, suppliers, and beneficiaries. Prior to co-founding 60 Decibels, Tom worked for 6 years as Acumen as Chief Impact Officer. In this role, Tom led the organization’s global work to understand the how and why of creating impact through patient capital investing. It was here he created Lean Data, a new approach for companies and investors to gather data to better understand their customers, grow their business and drive impact. Tom is also co-author of Growing Prosperity, and served as the Country Economist for DFID in Nigeria and was part of the senior management team for DFID's largest bilateral aid programme in Ethiopia.
	Nisha Singh \| Gender Transformative Technical Lead, FinEquity Nisha Singh is FinEquity's Gender Transformative Solutions Technical Lead. She has over 17 years of experience promoting access to finance and financial market systems development, with a focus on women’s economic empowerment and inclusion. Nisha worked at The SEEP Network from 2008 and 2016 to promote inclusive market systems development by building partnerships across the 120+ SEEP member organizations and associated stakeholders. Since 2017 her work has focused on increasing economic opportunities for women through innovations in financial services as well as gender mainstreaming for private sector actors.
	Ivo Jeník \| Senior Financial Sector Specialist, CGAP Ivo Jeník has 12 years of experience in finance, primarily in retail financial services regulation. He has led CGAP’s work on regulatory innovation (crowdfunding, regulatory sandboxes), capacity building for policy makers (regulation and supervision of digital financial services) and emerging business models in banking across continents. Before joining CGAP, Ivo worked in the Responsible Financial Access team at the World Bank, where he specialized in financial consumer protection and alternative dispute resolution. His professional experience spans across both the private and public sector, including serving as a compliance officer at an investment company and as Head of the Collective Investment Department at the Czech Financial Ombudsman.
	Peter Zetterli \| Senior Financial Sector Specialist, CGAP Peter Zetterli is a senior financial sector specialist and team lead for CGAP’s initiative on the future of financial services with nearly 20 years of experience promoting financial inclusion and private sector development. His work focuses on understanding what new business models are emerging thanks to technology innovation and how to harness it for broader and better financial access. The team has published extensively on the transformative potential of fintech, platforms, and digital banking models as well as the unbundling and embedding of financial services at www.cgap.org/fintech. Before joining CGAP in 2011, Peter worked for the United Nations in China and Sierra Leone on microfinance and business-led approaches to development.

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The Financial Inclusion Impact of Digitally Native Business Models

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