In this keynote presentation, Bob Chakravorti discusses how FinTech and big tech firms are increasing competition in the payments space. Entry into payments, often allows these non-bank providers the ability to offer loans to underserved consumers and small merchants. In the rest of the talk, Chakravorti discusses the effectiveness of...
In this blog, Chakravorti discusses incentives to increase adoption and usage of digital payments at micro, small, and medium retailers (MSMRs) globally. The blog discusses several findings from a recent World Bank study.
In this blog, Chakravorti explores the role of retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and their impact on payments and banking, more fundamentally. CBDCs are digital representations of fiat currencies issued by central banks, but their existence may have wider implications than just for payments. Today, central banks around the...
In this blog, Chakravorti discusses the roles for stablecoins and their ability to increase the use of cryptocurrencies for both payments and DeFi applications. He also discusses different ways to regulate stablecoins to maintain financial stability while not stifling innovative solutions geared toward achieving greater financial inclusion.
Although Anil Aggarwal had personally invited me back in 2012 to Money20/20, I only made it to the conference this year. Catching up with attendees after past conferences, I always regretted not going. This year’s event had a large and diverse set of speakers and exhibitors making it difficult to...
Generally, cross-border fund transfers occur over proprietary platforms requiring multiple intermediaries including banks. How do we provide payment mechanisms to the greater than 1.7 billion people without access to bank-intermediated financial services at a lower cost globally? Facebook announced last week that its new global currency, Libra, will address this...
Advancements in computing and mobile technologies have provided the impetus to create new payment mechanisms. Furthermore, non-bank providers, e.g. Venmo and WeChat Pay, social media WeChat’s payments arm, play an increasing role in the provision of payments that has traditionally been the domain of banks. For example, Visa, MasterCard, American...
Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have the potential to dramatically change how firms raise funds enabling less costly, more transparent, more accessible, and faster access to capital. The total amount of funds raised by ICOs was over $5.6 billion in 2017. However, in 2018, the market capitalization has fallen from $57...
Recent headlines like: “Bitcoin Mania: Even Grandma Wants In on the Action” and “When Grandma and Grandpa Join the Frenzy, You Know Bitcoin Is Turning into a Bubble,” suggest that bitcoin has become part of the common man’s conversation. Recently, the value of bitcoin eclipsed $19,000 after starting the year...
FinTech or financial technology has become an industry of great interest for investors, financial service professionals, consumers, businesses, and policymakers. From 2012 to 2017 Q2, VC-backed FinTech firms raised $50 billion globally (see CB Insights). Additionally, several central banks and international agencies have formed working groups with FinTech leaders or...