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Technology and Innovation


Technology and innovation is changing the nature of financial markets. Innovation can create opportunities, enhance efficiencies, increase competition, drive scale, and improve the reach and value of financial products and services to consumers. However, with innovation also comes risk.

Much attention is currently placed on the development of new technologies, business models and on creating the regulatory space for these models to encourage and facilitate innovation whilst protecting consumers to support both market development and consumer protection.

Our work explores the benefits and risks of technology and innovation across Africa and Latin America. We work to understand, map and support the various drivers for inclusive innovation, including the development of sustainable and welfare-enhancing products.

The Latest in Technology and Innovation

The benefits and potential risks of digital fiat currencies
Exploring digital fiat currencies (DFC) / central bank digital currency (CBDC)  Cryptocurrency has taken the financial world by storm since 2008 [...]
Network analysis to identify and segment farmers
Exploring how transactional-data-driven network analysis can allow financial service providers increase the value they provide to [...]
Using technology to build loyalty among insurance customers
Mary is the owner of a small business in Blantyre, Malawi, and the main breadwinner for her family. To support her family in the event that something [...]
Regulating for innovation: How to encourage responsible market innovation
For regulators, the dual implications of innovation make it a critically important but challenging topic to address. Regulators with a mandate to [...]
MAP Zambia diagnostic and roadmap to financial inclusion
From 2009 to 2015 the proportion of adults, financially excluded from any financial service, decreased from 63% to 41% in Zambia, which exceeded the [...]
Delivering on the promise of digitising payments in Zambia
Digital financial inclusion holds great promise. Last year, a McKinsey report found that digital finance could add up to $3.7 trillion to the GDP of [...]
Role of insurtech in microinsurance: How is insurtech addressing 5 challenges in microinsurance?
The business of insurance is hard. Microinsurance delivery has proven to be nearly impossible. Despite almost two decades of focus on the under and [...]
Getting ahead of the curve: How the regulatory discourse on M-insurance is changing
Nearly a year ago, we joined the A2ii in Abidjan to sit down with a roomful of regulators to discuss the challenges and imperatives CIMA faces in [...]
Insurtech tracker archive
This is the first version of the insurtech tracker. Explore more on insurtech here or see the updated insurtech tracker [...]
Managing risk whilst facilitating innovation: The case of m-insurance in Zambia
Zambia is one of nine countries in sub-Saharan Africa with more registered mobile money accounts than bank accounts (GSMA, 2013). Previous case [...]