FINANCIAL INCLUSION
INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN Giving more people full access to financial services is key to building back better, argues Nina Kerkez, Director of Consulting at LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The question is how?
Better for everyone: Financial exclusion exacts a price on society
That the economic effects of the pandemic have hit already financially-fragile communities hardest is indisputable; how financial services can prevent them free-falling further is now the urgent question, says Nina Kerkez. As director of consulting at data analytics giant LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Kerkez is well aware of progress made by fintech all over the world in bringing individuals and businesses in from the financial cold – ensuring access to
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basic bank services that can unlock opportunity and improve life chances beyond the economic. At an individual level, such access, she would argue, is a basic human right. But it’s not being extended nearly fast or far enough. And her fear is that the additional pressures on the marginalised created by COVID-19 will make society’s attempts to repair the damage of the last 14 months that much harder. This isn’t purely a humanitarian issue: un- and under-banked communities tend
to suffer worse financial, social and health outcomes – for which everyone pays. If the ‘build-back-better’ agenda is to work, it’s no good leaving the most vulnerable behind. But how financial services addresses the issue of financial inclusion in the post-COVID era could prove controversial. Kerkez argues that it might well require compromise – between, for example, universal access to services and data privacy. And that could leave industry facing a moral hazard. Current regulatory processes governing www.fintechf.com
