How mobile fintech platforms help emerging markets during COVID-19
In the wake of COVID-19, fintech platforms have never been more vital for emerging markets – both to consumers and businesses alike. The virus has upended normal life. Uncertainty in the markets coupled with a looming recession (or worse) have traditional financial institutions and major banks pulling back across the globe. The lifeline that fintech platforms afford the underbanked in emerging markets is now threatened. Perhaps the biggest pain point for the underbanked in emerging markets is the connection between lenders and traditional banks and financial institutions as well as the antiquated processes that are ingrained there but which cannot stand in a post-COVID world. Fintech platforms that underwrite lenders and/or update these pre-COVID processes at major financial institutions are helping to fill the gap during these uncertain times and are providing a path forward for those most vulnerable to the pandemic in emerging markets.
Over the last decade fintechs have demonstrated a unique capability to extend financial inclusion into emerging markets, improving the daily lives of people and businesses while also helping to spur growth. The growth of mobile is largely responsible for this as its ascendance and near ubiquity has helped fundamentally change the financial game, particularly in the third world.
