Promoting financial technology partnerships in BRICS

Abstract

Financial technologies (FinTech) have been touted as a means to foster financial inclusion. By promoting financial inclusion, low-income consumers are empowered to build their capabilities and overcome poverty. FinTech innovators tend to target areas of weakness or gaps not catered for by the traditional financial sector. However, in BRICS the pace of advancement among these innovators differs. Each has different strengths and weaknesses, and these innovators could benefit from knowledge sharing activities within their country and across BRICS. FinTech advancement in China, for example, outpaces the rest of the world. The knowledge attained by the giant FinTech operators in China would greatly benefit the FinTech sectors across the BRICS and African countries. The difficulty is the limited institutional space for FinTech innovators to engage and build partnerships. Analogue barriers such as language and culture are pervasive, and sustain fears that small FinTech innovators have when partnering with established FinTech giants. Strategies are needed to counter these fears and promote partnerships across these countries, strengthening the FinTech industry in each BRICS and African country. In this chapter, we describe a series of partnership models and benefits for FinTech innovators in engaging their counterparts across BRICS and Africa.