FINANCE, DATA, AND TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS FOR AN EQUITABLE WORLD

Highlights

Series - How our areas of work, and the people for whom we work, are contributing to the COVID-19 response

Edited by BFA Global CEO Amolo Ng'weno, Catalyst Fund Head of Learnings and Insights Malika Anand, and Communications Manager, Nasozi Kakembo, this dedicated blog series starts with Coco Dong sharing the stories of gig workers in Wuhan, and continues with this post about the Government of Kenya’s quick efforts to promote mobile money. Visit this page regularly for new blogs and join the conversation.

Webinar Recap - First insights from China: The effects of COVID-19 on financial health of MSEs

Did you miss the webinar on the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the financial health of micro and small enterprises in China? Watch the recording of the webinar and read related resources here.

Covid-19 Blog - Inclusive fintech in the time of COVID19

"The role of inclusive fintech in supporting the world's most vulnerable during Covid-19" by Maelis Carraro

Covid-19 Blog with FSDK - The buck stops with women

This is part of a series of rapidly-produced blogs on how low-income Kenyans are coping with the changes in their lives induced by the novel COVID-19. This research was implemented in partnership between BFA Global and FSD Kenya.

Services

We provide an innovative mix of research, insight, and services across a broad range of topics important to our clients, using finance and technology to craft digital solutions at the frontier that empower individuals, organizations, and communities to improve lives and create a more sustainable and equitable world.

Details

Our Portfolio

We leverage the opportunities created by a rapidly digitizing global economy, deploying our unique multi-disciplinary, nimble, client-centric approach to execute a range of projects combining financial tools, user-centered design, information, policy, and technology to characterize their challenges and design responses.

The RegTech for Regulators Accelerator

In the increasingly complex and digital financial world, the RegTech for Regulators Accelerator (R2A) partners with global standard setting bodies, leading financial sector authorities, and tech vendors across the globe to unlock the potential of new technologies and data science to re-engineer market supervision, regulation and policy analysis.

FinnSalud

The FinnSalud Project will develop a set of standards together with a measurement tool that will help better align consumer financial health with provider ROI, ensuring that financial products and channels are designed in a way that enhances the financial health of both customers and financial actors.

The FIBR Project

The Financial Inclusion on Business Runways (FIBR) Project, a partnership between BFA Global and Mastercard Foundation in Africa, was created with the vision to digitize the informal economy through micro and small enterprises (MSEs) using smartphones.

The OPTIX Project

BFA Global, MetLife Foundation, and RPA co-created the OPTIX project in 2015 to help financial institutions better understand the lives and needs of low-income customers and offer a portfolio of products and tools that improve their financial health. Financial institutions worldwide are striving to tailor solutions that improve the lives of low-income households and also make good business sense.

China: Helping Aggregators Reduce Greater Exclusion (CHARGE Phase 1)

Working with a local partner to design feasible aggregators models to help financially excluded customers in China to use financial services provided by superplatforms. We worked with the Chinese Academy of Financial Inclusion (CAFI) to design and establish local aggregator models in the next 2.5 years to help 200,000 financially excluded customers to gain access to financial services provided by the superplatforms.

Catalyst Fund

Catalyst Fund is a global inclusive fintech accelerator supporting early-stage startups who are building innovative solutions designed to reach the world's 3 billion underserved.

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Improving Financial Health of Low-Income People

The Optix Project in Bangladesh, Mexico, and Vietnam

Read the Focus Note

Insights

FinnSalud and COVID-19: Shifting to emergency mode

FinnSalud and COVID-19: Shifting to emergency mode FinnSalud is one of BFA Global’s largest projects, supported by MetLife Foundation and fiscally sponsored by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. The project was launched last November to operationalize the concept of financial … Continue reading →

Open-sourcing survey instrument for “COVID-19 and Your Finances” in English and Spanish

In order to conduct a rapid assessment of the impact of COVID-19, BFA Global deployed a “dipstick” online survey on Mar 25 and Mar 26 across seven countries. The blog post and dashboard that shared insights from the survey … Continue reading →

8 Steps for fintech startups: Planning a strategic response to COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds around us, reported cases across most emerging markets are still relatively low. As of March 30, Nigeria had 111 confirmed cases, Kenya reported 50, India and Mexico reported around 1000, and South Africa around 1300. … Continue reading →

Gig workers have powered Wuhan’s response to COVID-19

Looking down at Wuhan from the sky, you might think the city was empty. Instead of a bustling city of 11 million people, Wuhan looks like a ghost town. The center of the COVID-19 outbreak, Wuhan has been under quarantine … Continue reading →