World Business Angels Investment Forum
2020 World Congress, Swissotel The Bosphorus Istanbul
Fintech Summit, 18 February 2020, Tuesday, Geneve Hall, 15.00 – 15.45
Panel 1
The future of banking: How the digitalisation revolution is changing the role of banks
Fintech is a highly dynamic sector. Startups are working in incubation centres, accelerators and shared spaces in Berlin, London, Johannesburg, Singapore, and New York. Corporate giants such as Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Google are also part of the picture. But while market leaders have emerged, no one really knows where the next successful payment system or bitcoin wallet will come from. Many ideas will make it to the market, but just as many will fail. The services that succeed will be those that genuinely make life easier, perhaps by blending fintech with other technologies.
This panel will explore the future of the banking system and implications of digitalisation for the world’s economies. Essential questions include how banks can create holistic customer solutions that combine financial services with a wider range of digital offers and how they can increase financial inclusion through digitalisation.
Moderator
Kaiser Naseem, International Development Banker, Canada
Maria Marenco, President of the Government Blockchain Association Sweden / Nordic
Mohammad Ramin Komeilian, Founder of Karmeen Angel Investors Network, Iran
Petr Šrámek, Managing Partner, LongevityTech Fund, Czech Republic
World Business Angels Investment Forum
2020 World Congress, Swissotel The Bosphorus Istanbul
Fintech Summit, 18 February 2020, Tuesday, Geneve Hall, 15.45 – 16.15
Panel 2
Opportunities and challenges for fintech startups in emerging markets
Fintech services in developed countries focus on online customers, but startups in developing countries are addressing a much broader market segment: mobile phone users. According to the International Telecommunications Union, an estimated 95.5% of the world’s population has access to a mobile phone Mobile money transfer services such as M-Pesa, an emergent technology that was first introduced in Kenya, have made major contributions in changing the economic situation of unbanked populations. In Bangladesh’s strong micro-finance industry (small-scale unsecured credit), the M-Pesa equivalent is called bKash, which makes sending payments via mobile phone quick and easy.
In 2013, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, became an equity partner in bKash and in 2015, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also invested in bKash to ensure access to an even broader range of financial services for the low-income masses of Bangladesh, with the ultimate aim of achieving broader financial inclusion.
Looking at the impact of fintech solutions in Africa, it is important to keep in mind that in 16 African markets, there are now more mobile money accounts than bank accounts.
This panel will discuss the opportunities and challenges for fintech startups in emerging markets and address issues such as how fintech startups can position themselves as technology partners of banks and financial institutions and thereby support the world’s financial inclusion agenda through fintech.
Moderator
Modwenna Rees-Mogg, Non Executive Director, Albion Tech & General VCT & Former Director of United Kingdom Business Angels Association (UKBAA), UK
Christopher Mbanefo, Founder of the OXÏ-ZEN Program, Switzerland
Paula Petkova, Co-Founder, Wethaq, UAE
Wangeci Gathinji, Head of Wholesale at Safaricom, Kenya
By working together across borders, with a common vision, and with these smart dynamics in mind, we are well placed to bring about positive change in the global economy
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