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nourserghini

Kenya's Glowing Fintech Scene Is Dulled By A Lukewarm Wealthtech Segment - 0 views

  • For wealth management, Abacus is perhaps the most visible platform. The five-year-old NSE-licensed company offers users the ability to deposit, buy, sell, and trade unit trusts, bonds, and equities on their platform.Another startup is the earlier-mentioned Abojani which is an agent of AIB Capital for the purchase of local stocks. Founded in 2018, Abojani claims to have up to KES 40 Mn (roughly USD 400 K) under management for 150 clients in both stocks and mutual funds, as its CEO revealed to WeeTracker.Other platforms for wealth management in Kenya are Britam Asset Managers for mutual funds and Scope Markets for offshore stocks via Contract for Difference (CFD).
    • nourserghini
       
      This article is important because it shows wealth management platforms in Kenya that offer similar services as Abacus which are Abojani, Britam Asset Managers Scope Markets.
ghtazi

Seven ways for financial institutions to react to financial-technology companies | McKi... - 0 views

  • Financial-technology companies are changing the face of finance. Over the past ten years, what started mostly as disruption in the payments space has expanded to every corner of finance. Even areas once assumed to be safe are seeing new entrants and competitive threats. Wealth and asset management, wholesale banking, capital markets, regulation and risk (“regtech”), and trade finance are just the most recent areas to see innovation driven by small technology-first players.
  • Whether fintechs ultimately win or lose significant market share may be beside the point; they are redefining customer expectations and continue to create new business models. As fintechs are frequently building their entire technology stacks from the ground up, they are highlighting incumbent financial institutions’ weaknesses not only in digital user experiences but also in operational efficiency. Whether a new digital brokerage wins or loses may not matter when customer expectations around brokerage fees change. A retail foreign-exchange fintech having 5 or 50 percent of the market may matter less than retail FX margins disappearing for everyone. Whether the next crops of “neobanks” disrupt retail banking may be less important than their highlighting for users and customers the possibilities of a modern, digital-first experience.
  • As we counsel the leaders of incumbent financial institutions, we often turn to seven potential reactions they can consider. Leaders can seek to pursue a combination of      these options: Buy a fintech. Strategic through-cycle M&A can be a powerful driver of growth even as valuations remain high, particularly among the most successful and largest fintech companies. Whether incumbents purchase a company for its traction (customer base, loan book), technology (user experience, core system, advanced data capability), or talent (engineering, product management, executive leadership), we frequently find that success depends on their developing strength in post-acquisition integration. Partner with a fintech. A carefully designed partnership can enable faster time to market and cost-efficient implementation, with the ultimate goal of enable enabling bottom-line business impact from accessing new customers or improving back-office processes. Invest in fintechs. Investing in fintech companies is frequently a way to learn more about the space and to hedge some o
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  • f your downside potential from disruptive threats. Incumbents can choose to invest in companies they partner with or to focus on areas they know well or interesting adjacencies. We frequently advise clients to find ways of keeping corporate venture-capital groups slightly at arm’s length to attract skilled managers, and we recently have seen increased interest in investing in established outside managers who focus on financial technology. Transform yourself to be more like a fintech. Digital transformation is a difficult but necessary process for most incumbent financial institutions. Redesigning core infrastructure to be more modular and dynamic, driving a new agile operating model, and upgrading technology and workforce skills are all necessary to compete with outside threats, fintech and otherwise. Build your own (internal) fintech. The road for transformations is normally measured in years, but the competitive threat from fintechs is today. Increasingly, we are seeing financial institutions try to beat fintechs at their own game or self-disrupt areas of their business before others can. The key to success in new digital business building is to combine the agility, speed, and talent of a start-up with the “unfair advantage” of an incumbent by leveraging existing assets (e.g. customers, distribution, or infrastructure). Serve the fintechs. A few financial institutions can find their competitive advantage in creating scaled, efficient technology and operations to enable others to embed financial services in their customer experiences. This “banking as a service” business model depends on finding a profitable path to white labeling but draws on the inspiration of large tech platforms. Enabling the customer experiences of others has quickly moved beyond just enabling fintechs to also working with big technology companies, retailers, telecommunications companies, and beyond. Ignore fintechs. Although ignoring the competition is rarely the right choice, some businesses are built on moats—frequently regulatory—that are difficult to disrupt or they play within narrow markets. Companies should prioritize where they need to focus and in doing so know when they need to pay attention and when they need to avoid the distraction of disrupters.
    • samiatazi
       
      New competitors and competitive challenges are seen also in areas once thought to be protected. The most recent sectors to see innovation are wealth and asset management, wholesale finance, financial markets, taxation and risk. Fintechs illustrate the gaps of digital customer interfaces and organizational performance of incumbent financial institutions. In order to deal with the Fintech challenge, incumbents can attempt to follow a mix of seven alternatives.
  • Financial-technology companies are changing the face of finance. Over the past ten years, what started mostly as disruption in the payments space has expanded to every corner of finance. Even areas once assumed to be safe are seeing new entrants and competitive threats. Wealth and asset management, wholesale banking, capital markets, regulation and risk (“regtech”), and trade finance are just the most recent areas to see innovation driven by small technology-first players.
    • ghtazi
       
      what we can say is that even in the fintech world there is harsh competition, what once started as a disruption in the payments space has now been extended to every corner of finance. even the safest areas see new entrants and competitiveness. But even with all the pressure that they may encounter Fintechs always finds a way to redefine customer expectations and continue to create new business models.
kenza_abdelhaq

Robo-Advisor and its key benefits in Fintech | Top TechCEO's - 1 views

  • Financial planning is the backbone for every type of business to operate efficiently with achieve targeted objective. A single mistake in the financial records or planning can drag the growth of an organization to zero. As a solution, Robo-Advisors serve a digital platform with automated functions backed up with algorithm-driven financial planning services. This digital platform allow to automate the procedure with least or can be said no human supervision. A question might be nudging your mind, “How a digital platform can be able to plan financial operations?” It is a worth question that must be answered before using such a high tech platform.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      Since EasyEquities is all about investing, it needs to be very secure. Robo-advisors offer a digital platform where all the data is stored . They are a must have because a single, minor mistake from a human being could put the company at great risk.
  • Investing is a boon for an organization or an individual, but hardly people have any idea about investment. So, when they plan to invest their money for a better ROI, the very first solution hit their mind is wealth advisory team. But it makes their work more tedious by adding an interaction with a team and spending team for it. Robo-Advisor has brought a revolution in the finance sector with a new approach of automation. It is a digital assistant that work on various algorithms to manage financial portfolio of clients. It gives an enhanced and secure experience. This is possible with the help of machine learning and artificial intelligence. These tools are no longer confined till chat-bots; rather it has grown in the field of fintech too with a number of finance management aspects, such as automating loan process, data management, wealth management, voice assistance, customized finance advisory, and many more.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt confirms the need for Robo-advising in fintech start-ups. Robo-advising appears to be a revolution in the financial sector which replaces the regular wealth advisory team that traditional investors are accustomed to. Robo-advising is also cheap and thus could interest our eligible companies.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      Easy Equities company can benefit from the incorporation of roboadvisors in their platform to enhance their customer's experience and further facilitate the investment process.
mehdibella

Turo partners with Kiva to launch a novel initiative to help close the racial wealth gap - 0 views

  • "Our commitment of up to $1 million in funding to address the growing wealth inequality in the United States is not only the right thing to do, but a necessity,"
  • Kiva's crowdfunding platform, Kiva.org, allows individuals to lend as little as $25 to make a difference in someone's life. Kiva Protocol aims to establish financial identity and credit history for unbanked populations using distributed ledger technology (DLT), with its inaugural project currently being implemented in Sierra Leone.
  • Kiva Capital Management is a forthcoming subsidiary of Kiva that will operate as an impact-first asset manager connecting Kiva's network of Field Partners with institutional capital, scaling Kiva's ability to lend to underserved populations around the world.
nouhaila_zaki

What Is a Robo-Advisor? - 0 views

  • Shortcomings of Robo-Advisors The entry of robo-advisors has broken down some of the traditional barriers between the financial services world and average consumers. Because of these online platforms, sound financial planning is now accessible to everyone, not just high-net-worth individuals. Still, many in the industry have doubts about the viability of robos as a one-size-fits-all solution to wealth management. Given the relative nascency of their technological capabilities and minimal human presence, robo-advisors have been criticized for lacking in empathy and sophistication. They are good entry-level tools for people with small accounts and limited investment experience, namely millennials, but are far from sufficient for those who need advanced services like estate planning, complicated tax management, trust fund administration, and retirement planning. Automated services are also ill-equipped to deal with unexpected crises or extraordinary situations. For instance, if a young person's parents passed away and he/she receives an inheritance, going online to a robo-advisor to manage the money is probably not the optimal decision. In fact, a study conducted by Investopedia and the Financial Planning Association found that consumers prefer a combination of human and technological guidance, especially when times are rough. According to the report, 40% of participants said they would not be comfortable using an automated investing platform during extreme market volatility. Furthermore, robo-advisors operate on the assumption that clients have defined goals and a clear understanding of their financial circumstances, to begin with. For many, that is not the case. Answering questions like, "Is your risk tolerance low, moderate, or high?" presupposes the user has a fundamental knowledge of investment concepts and the real-life implications of each option they choose.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This article does a great job at introducing the limits of Robo-advisors: - the one-solution fits all to wealth management proposed by Robo-advisors does not account for extraordinary situations and unexpected crises. - people do not trust a robot to make life-changing huge decisions, especially when times are rough and market volatility is extreme. - Robo-advisors assume that clients have defined goals and a clear understanding of their financial circumstances, which is not always the case.
mohammed_ab

State of play: Fintech in Nigeria - The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) - 0 views

  • Nigerian fintechs are branching out from payments into lending, micro-investment, wealth management, peer-to-peer transfers and insurance. Payments and remittances are the most developed subsector to date. The country has seen a surge of new and simplified apps to help merchants, businesses and consumers. Mainstream banks, initially slow to react to the digital era, have quickly adapted to offer apps and tools in areas like loans, while non-traditional players—including telecom companies and retailers such as supermarkets—are entering the finance space. 
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    I think that this article is very interesting as it shows how Nigerian fintechs are starting to consider more service offerings. It's not just about payment anymore, these Nigerian fintech started to focus more on lending, insurance, and wealth management.
nouhaila_zaki

Frontiers | How Risk Profiles of Investors Affect Robo-Advised Portfolios | Artificial ... - 1 views

  • Automated financial advising (robo-advising) has become an established practice in wealth management, yet very few studies have looked at the cross-section of the robo-advisors and the factors explaining the persistent variability in their portfolio allocation recommendations. Using a sample of 53 advising platforms from the US and Germany, we show that the underlying algorithms manage to identify different risk profiles, although substantial variability is evident even within the same investor types' groups. The robo-advisor expertise in a particular asset class seems to play a significant role, as does the geographical location, while the breadth of the offered investment choice (number of portfolios) across the robo-advisors under study does not seem to have an effect.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      Robo-Advisors go way beyond portfolio allocation; they help keep in the company in tact. Investment companies, like EasyEquities, need such expertise to manage all the financial transactions.
  • Given the different attitudes of investors toward digitalization, robo-advising can be segmented into two main sectors. The first one is pure robo-advising, which is completely free from human intervention in the advisory process. This results in considerably lower fees compared to traditional advisory services, attracting lower-income clientele. As reported by Ringe and Ruof (2018), pure RAs charged fees ranging between 0.4% (US market) and 0.8% (European markets), compared to human financial advising costing circa 1–2%. Pure RAs have become quite popular due to their propensity to avoid conflict of interests due to automation. Fisch et al. (2017) highlight that RAs are less exposed to conflict of interests due to their higher independence, smaller bias to recommend actively managed funds that generate commissions as a potential additional expense, more transparent cost structures, lower minimum investment requirements, and 24/7 availability.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt explains how robo-advising works as well as its positive sides. The most interesting one in my opinion would have to be the avoidance of conflict of interests due to automation which could prove to be very useful in a continent (Africa) that is infested with corruption and nepotism.
ghtazi

Invest Mobile Is An App to Help You Manage Investments | gharage - 0 views

  • “The app intelligently integrates with the Mobile Money account of the subscriber and an agreed amount is deducted from the account daily, weekly or monthly and invested into financial investment solution on behalf of the customer. Investing small sums of money every day, using the power of compound interest, quickly adds up to build the wealth portfolio of our clients. Unlike other services, we make investment stress free.
    • sawsanenn
       
      In contrast to its competitors, Invest Mobile doesn't partner with other banks, however, it does require its customers to have their own saving account from different banks.
  • Personal Investment Invest Mobile simplifies personal investment solutions. Just deposit money into your mobile money account or Visa card and link it to your app. Group Investment They make it easy for organisations to invest together. All you have to do is create a group investment and invite members to invest with you Loans Should you ever need cash before your maturity date, no need to cancel your investment, just apply for an instant loan.
    • ghtazi
       
      what the activities allowed by the app for its users
kenza_abdelhaq

M-Pesa: A Case Study in Financial Inclusion | by Matt ฿ | ChainRift Research ... - 0 views

  • M-Pesa was launched in 2007, and it’s still going strong. The concept of a phone-based money transfer service originated back in 2002, when researchers realized the popularity of the market for phone airtime — individuals in a handful of African nations often transferred it to friends and family for subsequent use or resale.
  • Their analysis found that, as a result of M-Pesa’s proliferation, 2% of Kenya’s households had been lifted out of poverty. Moreover, the study established (due to the lack of hard cash in said households) that money was better managed and less prone to being allocated to unimportant endeavors (I feel there’s a loose parallel to be drawn to the HODL/long time preference mentality here).
  • When M-Pesa (launched by Safaricom) made its debut a few years later, it had initially been conceived as a solution for microfinancing — allowing institutions to distribute and collect loan payments without the hassle of cash. However, during this pilot, its widespread adoption in a myriad of alternative use cases caused the company to reconsider and relaunch with a focus on ensuring individuals could send money to their families and execute payments.
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  • Whilst things like Apple Pay and Google Pay leverage some interesting technologies, they still rely on the participant being ‘banked’ in the first place. That, and they’re about ten years too late to the party.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      Unlike Apple pay and Google Pay, M-Pesa does not need its customers or users to have a bank account.
  • Clearly, there are benefits to virtual currency that physical fiat can’t mirror. Beyond convenience and security (no need to carry cash), the M-Pesa offering allows for remittance across long distances cheaply and without a bank account.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      In addition to being convenient and secure, M-Pesa provides easy solutions for remittance or money transfer across long distances with low cost.
  • M-Pesa has proven that relatively low-tech ‘dumb phones’ can be transformed into tools for better wealth control. The leap from virtual money to cryptocurrency isn’t a massive leap from there. Indeed, tools such as BitSIM (development appears to be stalling, though the concept is simple; overlaying a SIM card with a small sticker so that even archaic phone models can transact in BTC), Samourai’s PonyDirect and CoinText (currently aimed at Bitcoin Cash) facilitate entry into the Bitcoin ecosystem with cellphones.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      M-Pesa is setting the example in how regular phones can be used for virtual money transfer and how this could incorporate in the same sense cryptocurrencies.
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    The organization becomes exceptionally well known among the low-income local area. It furnished people with a simple solution to send money from any location.
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    It's quite fascinating to see that 2% of Kenyan households were lifted out of poverty just because they start using M-Pesa services. I think that M-Pesa has some great potential in dealing with poverty as people get to manage their money more efficiently when they use mobile money.
  •  
    M-pesa was launched in 2007 and it is based on the concept of phone based money. It was established for the main purpose of allowing institutions to distribute and collect loan payments without having to deal with actual cash, yet they were smart and made it a company that has the main goal of giving people the opportunity of making payments and send money.
ayachehbouni

YCombinator backed investment platform, Thndr, receives first new brokerage license in ... - 0 views

  • Thndr, a YCombinator backed investment platform, makes it easy to invest in stocks, bonds, and funds completely commission free. Thndr aims at solving Egypt and the region’s painful, outdated and time consuming process to open, fund and actively manage investment accounts. Thndr’s first product is a mobile first equities trading platform in Egypt. The startup just acquired the necessary licensing from the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) making the fast growing startup the first company to acquire a brokerage license in Egypt since 2008. Issuing a license to a tech company is a testament to the regulator’s strong commitment to seek modern methodologies to enhance the investment landscape in Egypt.
    • aminej
       
      They acquired an important license from the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) which shows that they are following strict regulations. It is good for the traders because it is a official trading platform that offers safety when investing and trading
  • Thndr pre-seed funding involved an array of distinct investors such as Y-Combinator, 4DX Ventures, Endure Capital, The Raba Partnership, MSA Capital, along with some other notable investors that include Tom Stafford, Managing Partner, DST “Savings and investing is a critical part of building wealth and economic development, and Egypt’s youth needs a mobile first platform like Thndr to open the floodgates of investing in the coming decades.
    • ayachehbouni
       
      Investors are attracted to Thndr because of its ideals and goals but mostly because of its innovative services. The platform removes all barriers and friction that users face throughout their investment journey, be it when it comes to account opening, associated costs, access to resources or ease of use. The important mission these services carry out are what made the success of the company among its competitors.
sawsanenn

How Ghana's Pennysmart helps users save on their own terms - Disrupt Africa - 0 views

  • Pennysmart claims to be the first mobile money-centric digital wealth management service provider, and has been pleased with uptake since launch.
    • sawsanenn
       
      Invest Mobile Competitor
aminej

LinkedIn - 0 views

  • CEO of Abacus Wealth Management, an online investment brokerage. Abacus allows investors to make and execute faster, smarter, more informed decisions on instruments in Kenya's financial markets. CEO of Capital Associates, an investment and holding company with interests in financial services, real estate, agriculture and technology. Previously started and built Kenya’s largest consumer financial news and information site. Experience in mobile money, having led teams that developed mobile banking solutions for Kenyan branches of global banks such as Barclays and Standard Chartered, and several local banks and financial institutions. I keep up to date with changes in the industry and get involved through consulting and advisory. Actively involved in Kenya’s start-up scene as an entrepreneur, a member of the iHub and Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A) communities, as an advisor to several web and mobile start-ups and a writer. My focus is on business and revenue models, financing and venture capital.
    • aminej
       
      Abacus strategy aims to lead the Kenyan Trading Market by offering a platform that facilitates investing in stocks, bonds and other securities for Kenyans to maximize their profits. They also care about educating their population on Financial service and the different benefits that they can offer.
hibaerrai

Y Combinator-backed Thndr receives first new brokerage license of Egypt in ten years fo... - 0 views

  • Founded in 2019 by Uber Egypt’s former General Manager Ahmad Hammouda, Thndr is starting with a Robinhood-like mobile-first equities trading platform that enables people to invest in stocks in The Egyptian Exchange.
    • ayachehbouni
       
      Thndr hopes to increase Egypt's financial literacy which is key for families to move up in social mobility.
    • hibaerrai
       
      This fintech encourages egyptian individuals to invest more in stocks and bonds and other securities. The goal is to enhance investments in the country.
  • Ahmad Hammouda, the co-founder and CEO of Thndr, said, “Our vision is to put wealth in the hands of everyday individuals. With the rise of technology, and the foresight of a very supportive Financial Regulatory Authority, we can make this vision come to life — Egypt is expected to be the 7th largest economy by 2030 and has more than 100 mn people, most of which are young and are looking for a convenient and digital way to invest their money. That’s why we are excited to bring a new breed of young investors to the market.”
    • aminej
       
      I love the fact that people in Egypt are really concerned about teaching the young generation some important concepts such as trading and investing in either national or international markets
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