About Our Event

WORLD FINTECH FESTIVAL IN THE UNITED STATES: DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR FAIR FINANCE

The shortcomings of America’s retail financial systems became evident when the government responded to the economic fallout of the pandemic. The payment system moved slowly—it took as long as three months to get government payments to an estimated 100 million Americans, many of whom were facing sudden financial hardship. In July 2020, months after many other countries had disbursed stimulus payments into bank accounts—often within minutes—millions of Americans had not yet received their prepaid cards. In the absence of an identity system, some payments were sent to deceased people. Challenges also emerged with America’s credit-history based credit-scoring system. Even before the crisis exposed these shortcomings, the dated financial infrastructure in the U.S. has been a driver of inequality.

The panel will discuss lessons from US pandemic response and the path to address those challenges.

Moderator: Kabir Kumar, Flourish Ventures

PART 1: Presentation (15 mins)
Topic: The role of digital infrastructure for pandemic response: comparison of 11 programs
Speaker: Olivia White, McKinsey & Company

PART 2: Panel Discussion (45mins)
Speakers: Aaron Klein, Brookings Institution; Daniel Murphy, Financial Health Network; Sonal Shah, Beeck Center for Social Innovation; Olivia White, McKinsey & Company

Back