Financial sector braces for strong headwinds
Senior bank executives and regulators gathering in Davos this week are still grappling with the fallout of the global financial crisis, almost a decade after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Disrupting the financial playing field
Naguib Sawiris has always been a force to be reckoned with, in business, politics and even international relations. Charismatic and forthright, the Egyptian entrepreneur is a visible catalyst of change in the Middle East and North Africa.
Driving digital payments innovation
Alternative payment methods, like peer-to-peer providers PayPal and Square Cash, and smartphone digital wallets, are disrupting an industry which long offered just three options: cash, check, or card.
Money makes the world go round
Long-established financial institutions are working hard to support financial inclusion and to increase their funding of socially and environmentally positive projects.
M-Pesa: mobile money in Africa
In many African countries, more people now use a mobile money account than a bank account. Many of them will be customers of Vodafone’s pioneering M-Pesa service.
Cyprus: stable finance, stable growth
As the world’s policymakers continue to grapple with the consequences of the global financial crisis, the remarkable recovery of the island economy of Cyprus has become a point of reference in the debate.
Exchanging environmental commodities
Alongside the global banks, newer players in the financial sector are delivering innovative financing mechanisms for environmental investments.
Q&A: MasterCard South Africa
Mark Elliot, Division President: "Done right, mobile money can bring the banked world to the unbanked in ways that are useful in their daily lives."
Q&A: Carbon Trade Exchange
Wayne Sharpe, Executive Chairman and Founder: "We want to provide the global scale and capacity needed to address the climate change problem."