A joint report from the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion and the Institute of International Finance provides insight from SME Finance Forum members and friends, including MasterCard, ICICI Bank, Bancolombia, and BBVA Bancomer. This publication explores why financial institutions partner with fintechs to pursue financial inclusion, banks, insurers, and payment companies often note that it would take three to four times the resources to develop the same technology in-house, and they appreciated the way fintechs enable them to engage with and learn from new technology in low-risk, low-cost ways. Through a variety of case studies and figures, you understand lessons from these companies.

In all partnerships studied, interviewees emphasized how closely institutions worked together. One interviewee described collaboration as “co-creation.” Another explained that partnering looks like working daily side-by-side for months. A third described how fintech employees move in to the bank’s headquarters during multiple two-week “sprints” so that the two companies could pursue rapid technology development together with maximum shared understanding.