BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
GUEST COLUMNL
Fintech's potential for addressing problems in global society
he number of plastic cards is expected to hit 30 billion within the next three years – more than four times the entire
suggested it was risky to launch a project on the other side of the world during a pandemic, but it’s now in its second year and going strong. Our interns are reaching out to other universities in equatorial regions of the globe to launch a movement that will seek to protect vital ecosystems on the equator. At its simplest level, this might involve enabling consumers to support equatorial conservation by making a donation when they download an image or artistic design with which to personalise their virtual Mastercard. It will also enable them to send out a powerful message to ditch plastic. By integrating digital content into payment platforms – whether it’s images, artwork or NFTs [non-fungible tokens; a one-off digital artwork] consumers can turbocharge their relationships with charities, non-profit organisations, and socially responsible brands. In the future, corporations will increasingly want to get inside your head so that they can monetise you. They already know what you spend and where you spend it. It’s just that they don’t always know for sure what motivates that behaviour. But, as we increasingly lead our lives in virtual spaces – especially since the advent of the metaverse – brands will literally be able to map everything that you do in order to know what you think. Why not turn this around so that it is to the advantage of the consumer? What if instead of passively letting businesses harvest your data, you could use that process to promote good and call out
the unacceptable? Innovation within the fintech sector offers consumers an opportunity to decentralise the powerbase within the financial system so that it calibrates away from the major financial intuitions back into the hands of consumers. That’s not to say that major financial institutions don’t have a legitimate role to play in society. Clearly, they do and it’s likely that they always will. They just need consumers to guide them to make the right decisions. According to the World Bank, around one billion of the world’s population of almost eight billion are ‘unbanked’. This means they do not have access to traditional financial services or products, including banking, insurance or pensions. Globally, the individual countries with the lowest levels of access to financial services are China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico and Bangladesh. While in South America as a whole, it is believed that more than a third of the population remain unbanked, in spite of recent improvements that are the result of government inclusion schemes. Encouragingly, there are signs that things will change very rapidly as technology gathers pace, but of course, we all know that technology can, equally, be a force for good or bad. Working in, or with, the fintech sector is a great way to help ensure that digital technology is a force for good. Michael Donald is the Founder of ImageNPay. Previously, he was a UK Board Director of Visa.
number of people on the planet.
The majority of these cards are made from non-recyclable PVC material. They are typically renewed every three to four years, with a huge carbon footprint involved in their manufacture and transportation. This is just one of the social and environmental challenges faced by the financial sector – and technology can play a huge role in helping to solve these problems. Just like any other thriving sector, fintech companies hire talent from across all disciplines and there is always a demand for young people with strong business skills. My own background was not originally in heavy tech. My first job was in project management, helping to draw up plans for maritime emergencies. This enabled me, later, to join American Express and I spent the next 25 years working for major financial institutions before founding ImageNPay, which offers consumers the ability to make plastic-free digital payments with a virtual Mastercard. The fintech sector is evolving at an incredible pace and it has the ability to change the global financial system for the better. One of the things that ImageNPay was able to achieve during the pandemic was to create an international internship, which operates remotely with students at the San Francisco de Quito University [USFQ] in Ecuador. Conventional wisdom
42
www.mbaworld.com
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online