Putting on a new lens: Exploiting mainstream innovations with a financial inclusion focus Today, financial innovations have penetrated, and continue to permeate almost every aspect of financial activity. This has been driven by faster computing speed, lower cost of storage and faster problem-solving capabilities. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Technology is being used by financial institutions to improve operations – from improving customer experience to constructing better models to manage risks more efficiently and effectively. In many cases, strategic partnerships with fintech companies have been established to achieve similar outcomes. The advent of robo-advisers and algorithmic underwriting are some of the examples. These developments have largely evolved within the mainstream customer segments and have proven to be effective. Clearly, opportunities exist to leverage on capabilities that are already in place to create specific applications for financial inclusion. With proven application, the prospects for achieving greater scalability, faster time to market and increased take-up are correspondingly greater. For years, financial institutions have invested heavily in technology that has helped improve the collection and mining of financial and non-financial data to gain richer insights into customer preferences and behaviours. These same capabilities create immediate opportunities to identify specific barriers to financial inclusion for different target groups whose needs are shaped by very different priorities, experiences, values and norms. For example, cultural biases can be an important factor that is not fully appreciated and understood as a factor that limits higher levels of financial inclusion among women.

Among lower income groups, a more granular level of analysis on income patterns is needed to structure solutions that address the irregularity in loan repayments. Financial inclusion for the ageing population is another critical area that requires more understanding. It is important that new products, delivery channels and technologies also work well for our senior citizens that are financially excluded. Many financial products and services offered today have age limits that create barriers to access financial services. This ought to be changed to ensure inclusive financial systems for the ageing population segment. Technologies that enable better data collection and analytics can support deeper research to fill this gap while mitigating the risks to providers of financial solutions. Beyond data applications, opportunities exist in other areas. For example, distributed ledger technology eliminates the need for centralised transaction validation and shortens the settlement chain, effectively lowering costs of real-time remittances. By incorporating adequate Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirements, distributed ledger has the potential to address de-risking. Robo-advisers could potentially be adapted to increase financial literacy and support customers in less accessible locations. The adoption of open Application Interfaces (API) facilitates a sharing environment whereby improvements build on existing innovations could shorten the time to market for more offerings. These are just a hint of many more examples that can be examined. What is needed is a rethinking of today’s most promising financial innovations for applications and new gains in financial inclusion.