Publications

Publications

The un(der)banked is FinTech’s largest opportunity

The un(der)banked is FinTech’s largest opportunity

Mobile money services have proven to be an effective gateway for financial inclusion among the un(der)banked, a demographic that could evolve into a US$3 trillion payments volume opportunity. But mobile money services are a fraction of the opportunity and have converted only a small fraction of the unbanked population into users of additional services. For example,  we see $360 billion in unmet banking deposit demand, with insurance facing more than $20 billion in uncaptured premiums in the U.S. market alone. Mobile has been the enabling technology, and money services act as the entry point for the un(der)banked. Access, trust, and tapping into evolving consumer behavior will drive the sustainable conversion of this demographic to the formal financial system. With 42% of the global adult population still absent from the formal financial system, the financial services and FinTech industry is in a rare position to drive not only economic and innovation change, but also social change.Innovators are starting to move beyond money services to address lending, insurance, and even the savings area. With innovation occurring in multiple functional banking areas aimed at the un(der)banked, incumbent financial institutions can now consider an aggregate financial inclusion strategy based solely around these emerging FinTechs.

Fintech