A Fintech Challenge to Improve Financial Inclusion

Fintech 4 Financial Inclusion is an innovative academic activity that will involve around 400 students and develop novel, digital solutions to improve financial inclusion. The students who will come up with the best project ideas will have the chance to visit a Citi Innovation Lab in Dublin or Tel Aviv.

As a part of their Private Equity and Venture Capital course, the graduate students will participate in a project teamwork with the goal of exploiting the potential of digital technology and improve the financial inclusion of those two billion people that have no access to the financial system.

The fintech solutions students are called to draw up regard four areas: financing (help entrepreneurs to launch businesses that provide greater and more secure access to financial solutions such as crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending and micro-loans); investment (develop innovative solutions that help disadvantaged categories to protect and manage their savings); payment systems (develop fintech solutions that increase financial knowledge and accessibility of financial products for disadvantaged people); impact investing (sustain financial schemes and matching solutions that facilitate the start-up and development of for-profit projects that generate significant and measurable social benefits).

This morning Prof. Anna Omarini gave an introductory lecture on the current fintech context (pictured above). Students are being assigned to four tutors according to their area (Anna Omarini for Payment Systems, Gimede Gigante for Financing, Giulia Negri for Investment and Francesca Casalini for Impact Investing) and will attend a specific training program.

"The initiative is a spin-off of Bocconi #StartupDay, and it makes use of the same platform and strengths the collaboration with Citi Foundation as part of their #Pathways2Progress program", says Stefano Caselli, director of the Private Equity and Venture Capital course.