For many years, banks in the US avoided investing in infrastructure in rural and low-income neighborhoods as they didn’t view the income from credit and housing loans in such communities as a good return on investment. As a result, millions of Americans found themselves unbanked or underbanked.
This isn’t an issue limited strictly to the US, though. Across the globe, there are 1.4 billion adults without access to banks. But a large section of this population does have access to mobile phones and as a result, there has been widespread adoption of mobile and peer-to-peer payments apps.
Many of the remittance systems in place that power these apps lack interoperability, leaving users siloed by geography and unable to participate fully in a global banking system. Consequently, this can drive users to pursue other means of payments, such as wire transfers, where they risk being subject to predatory fees as high as 20% of what is being sent – money that could have a transformative impact on the communities for which it was intended.
This is the crossroads where innovation in payments technology can have a major impact on financial inclusion – and it’s exactly the kind of work Briana Marbury, CEO, Interledger is leading, where she’s driving the adoption of a more transparent and ubiquitous remittance protocol. Briana sat with EPAM’s Alex Jimenez to discuss all this and more in our latest episode of Silo Busting. Have a listen.
