UNITAR's third conference on Fintech seeks to build a critical eye on Fintech opportunities and risks. We have invited high-level panelists across different sectors such as Academia, International Organizations and Governments among others to discuss ways in which FinTech can be harnessed by countries for their development and for the achievement of the SDGs. The conference will focus on three thematic areas : 1) Fintech and development 2)  Fintech and security, and 3) Fintech and ecology.

Background

Enterprises around the world are pursuing digitalization to save costs and time, enhancing productivity and performance. Automation, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet of Things are some of the prominent technologies that are making the Digital Revolution possible.

In the financial industry, Financial Technologies (FinTech) have abruptly changed the delivery of traditional financial services such as payments, insurance, deposits, lending and investment management. This change in delivery has led to changes in business models, as new services related to blockchain or distributed ledger technologies, cloud computing and analytics are leveraged. According to the world bank, digital financial services can help support economic development and reduce poverty, through low-cost access to services such as transaction accounts, credit, savings products, and insurance etc.

Many development agencies are trying to integrate Fintech solutions in their practice as a fundamental pilar with the aim of providing access to funding to the vulnerable and rural populations. For example, mobile money has penetrated multiple countries across the world, leading to improved access to finance.

While Fintech provides numerous benefits, the increased dependence of the Financial Sector on digitalization does raise several issues. One such issue is security, therefore making cybersecurity a cornerstone in the sustainability of Fintech. Also, the ecological impacts of Fintech technologies such as cryptocurrencies are essential to understand, as the level of Co2 emissions of such technologies have been a cause for concern for many organizations and civil society.

FinTech has huge potential to be helpful in vulnerable societies, therefore understanding the fintech ecosystem is essential in understanding how to leverage it for these communities. In this roundtable, we will discuss these cutting-edge topics with experts, private companies, state representatives, and academics. We will debate how to orient these three thematic areas for the improvement of development practice and policy allowing society to benefit from the connectedness that digitalization and FinTech can offer.

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This event is supported by the Hiroshima Prefecture.