Last week, on the heels of the U.S. presidential election, MasterCard released a survey finding the economy, health care, and taxes remain top of mind for Americans. Solving for financial inclusion was not initially highly ranked on the list.
But when the 1000 plus Americans surveyed learned that as many as 88 million Americans lack access to basic financial services, including a traditional savings or checking account or access to credit, two-thirds said it’s an issue to be addressed.
MasterCard is already helping to solve for this challenge across the globe through innovative products such as mobile, prepaid, cash reloads, and bill pay. And innovative approaches and thinking from MasterCard Advisors and Insights.
While we’re proud of our contributions in this space, at the same time, we’re equally aware we don’t have all the answers. That’s why we’re convening some key stakeholders today – to listen, to learn, and to share. To pre-set that discussion, I want to offer the following three-point framework:
- No one single stakeholder public or private can drive financial inclusion or deliver on the full suite of solutions.
- The private sector has an instrumental role to play in bringing more people into the economic fold. MasterCard is already proving that payments technology innovation is a vital driver of financial inclusion and efficiency through products, value-added services, and financial education.
- In addition to increasing access, it’s more imperative than ever that companies like ours deliver products and services that are relevant and useful in their day-to-day life – in an effort to meet the so-called Last Mile challenge.
No one at MasterCard “owns” financial inclusion any more than any one stakeholder does. It’s an all-hands proposition internally as a company and externally as a global community – one that takes an ecosystem to address and solve for.