March 2021
31Mar

New Zealand. How KiwiSaver could be used to supercharge innovation

KiwiSaver has grown tremendously since it launched in 2007, but it is pretty vanilla. Most investments are lazily thrown into listed stocks and bonds – the scheme is designed that way. We could be using some of this money to invest in such alternatives as startups, scaling successful businesses to go international, and infrastructure that we need, as is done routinely internationally. KiwiSaver is big enough and old enough to ask how we can unleash the power of capital towards the...

March 31, 2021
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February 2021
11Feb

India. Will WhatsApp Thrive In Micro-Pension Space, A Road Not Taken By Indian Fintech?

WhatsApp is on its way to rolling out micro-pension products for the Indian masses In spite of a robust fintech ecosystem, no startup has attempted to cater to an underserved Indian market WhatsApp could be facing tough challenges as the low-income population lacks financial awareness and the habit of saving When messaging giant WhatsApp announced its foray into micro-pension products in December 2020, it turned out to be a first-of-its-kind initiative in the Indian fintech space. This is surprising,...

February 11, 2021
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October 2020

09Oct

New Finance: In Search for Analytical Framework

By Jan Monkiewicz Since the beginning of the century, modern financial systems have been experiencing a period of dynamic change. These changes have caused the uniform fabric on which the systems were based for a long time to become eroded and a multitude of alternative solutions to appear in their place. The existing systems are becoming increasingly heterogeneous and increasingly less transparent. In addition to the traditional financial system based on highly regulated financial intermediaries with a legal monopoly,...

October 9, 2020
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02Oct

AI Human Impact: Toward a Model for Ethical Investing in AI-Intensive Companies

By James Brusseau Does AI conform to humans, or will we conform to AI? An ethical evaluation of AI-intensive companies will allow investors to knowledgeably participate in the decision. The evaluation is built from nine performance indicators that can be analyzed and scored to reflect a technology’s human-centering. When summed, the scores convert into objective investment guidance. The strategy of incorporating ethics into financial decisions will be recognizable to participants in environmental, social, and governance investing, however, this paper...

October 2, 2020
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02Oct

UK. PensionBee and Plaid team up to call for ‘open pensions’

The two fintechs are calling on the FCA to speed up the introduction of Open Finance to help people view their pensions all in one place. Digital pension provider PensionBee and financial API provider Plaid have joined forces to push for an open finance standard within the pension industry. In a report published by the pair yesterday, Plaid and PensionBee are calling for ‘open pensions’ to be made standard, something which they claim will “improve financial decisions”...

October 2, 2020
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September 2020

15Sep

Digital financial services

By World Bank Access to affordable financial services is critical for poverty reduction and economic growth. Countries with deeper, more developed financial systems enjoy higher economic growth and larger reductions in poverty and income inequality. Access to financial services also increases opportunities and resilience for the poor, particularly women. Despite this, 65 percent of adults in the world’s poorest economies lack access to even the most basic transaction account that would allow them to send and receive...

September 15, 2020
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May 2020
04May

Trouble with pensions is a lack of innovation

By Steve Watson Recent research found that two thirds of employers think that pensions are far too complicated and providers are not innovating enough to offer new and progressive products. The research, which looked at the challenges employees face when it comes to pensions, found that almost 45% of employers felt that ensuring all employees have adequate funds when they retire was a huge challenge. While auto enrolment has made a huge difference to the numbers of employees saving into...

May 4, 2020
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04May

Trouble with pensions is a lack of innovation

By Steve Watson Recent research found that two thirds of employers think that pensions are far too complicated and providers are not innovating enough to offer new and progressive products. The research, which looked at the challenges employees face when it comes to pensions, found that almost 45% of employers felt that ensuring all employees have adequate funds when they retire was a huge challenge. While auto enrolment has made a huge difference to the numbers of employees saving into...

May 4, 2020
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March 2019

15Mar

Impact of the digitalisation of financial services on supervisory practices in the private pension sector case study: Mexico

By the National Commission of the Retirement Savings System (CONSAR) I. Context of the Retirement Savings System (SAR) 1. Mexico introduced a new mandatory DC system of individual accounts in 1997 for private-sector workers (IMSS) and in 2007 for public-sector workers (ISSSTE)1 , both of which replaced old DB systems that had been in place since the 1940s and 1950s. 2. The new system has been relatively successful in creating a big pool of pension savings, as well as...

March 15, 2019
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August 2018

10Aug

Why Innovation And Regulation Should Work Together

If there is one single matter that worries tech leaders today it is the difficulty in conciliating innovation and regulation. Most companies, from tech giants to startups, are still trying to adjust to the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and yet more of the same is coming. The next step will be the adoption of the EU’s ePrivacy Regulation, which will be published toward the end of 2018 or early 2019. Recently, lawmakers signed the California Consumer Privacy Act...

August 10, 2018
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