Blended finance and the post-COVID economy (Part 1)
As we battle with the pandemic of Covid-19, the only hope may appear to be a vaccine. A magic fix? Not so much. Because the socio-economic strains that Covid-19 has exposed are the symptoms, and not the root cause. The crisis has exposed fault lines in healthcare, education, finance, and practically every industry that keeps…
Continue ReadingWhy banks must warm up to APIs?
After enough has been written about the benefits of using APIs for banks, only one pertinent question remains: It now boils down to ‘When rather than Whether’ for API adoption by banks. In that pursuit, the biggest challenge seems to be – ‘how to monetize our API efforts?’ The simple answer is to figure out…
Continue ReadingThe Importance of UI/UX in the Lending Sector
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” – Steve Jobs This is the visual age. What you see is what you get. In a world where the ubiquity of connected devices have permeated every aspect of customer decision making, visual appeal is what makes or breaks…
Continue ReadingDigitization of the banking and lending sector in a post-COVID world
“Longevity in this world is being able to reinvent yourself or invent your future.” — SatyaNadella, CEO of Microsoft Corporation We are living through historic times. Stories about the Coronavirus lockdown will be told decades into the future; and things will never be the same for anybody. Every industry in the world has had to…
Continue ReadingWill the AI explain itself?
Will the AI explain itself? Though artificial intelligence has existed for decades, it has remained in the fringes for long, with few game-changing applications until today. That said, the current Covid-19 pandemic has moved the world towards embracing AI in as many ways as possible to compensate for the unprecedented restrictions. AI-based social distancing detection…
Continue ReadingDecentralized finance and the banking industry
“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” — Lord Actor, British historian. Today’s financial world has become too centralized, which has resulted in a few enjoying all the privileges, and many left out of the system. The resulting unrest has birthed a revolution in the making, an antithesis to centralized finance, named aptly as ‘decentralized finance’. Here comes…
Continue ReadingBanking today and tomorrow
What is a bank? Well, the word comes from Italian ‘banca’ that simply means a bench or a counter behind which bankers sit and enable transactions. As simple as that. Cut to today, what does the word bank bring to your mind? The younger you are, the more chances there are that you recall the…
Continue ReadingSupply chain risks in banking
Supply chains- the value network consisting of sourcing of raw materials, manufacturing, outbound logistics, channels and demand management- took a massive beating from the pandemic. As COVID-19 related lockdowns overwhelmed country after country, firms and businesses experienced supply shocks in the forms of both disruptions to the availability of goods sourced from China as also…
Continue ReadingAgro lending and COVID
“If the farmer is rich, then so is the nation.” — Amit Kalantri, popular writer. There is no denying the effect of this pandemic. The world coming to a standstill means that the economy stands on the brink of collapse and this does not bode well for anyone. But in times like these, we must…
Continue ReadingSignificant lending trends to look for post-COVID
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. – Benjamin Franklin To say that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world would be an understatement. Most, if not all the people alive today have never experienced a complete lockdown like the one we face today. The effects of this are bound to be immense and…
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