Financial Technology Solutions

🚨Mastercard plans to phase out traditional 16-digit card numbers by 2030. Here is what you should know: This shift aims to reduce fraud, improve user experience, and align with the growing trend of tokenization and biometric authentication in payments. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗜𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗡𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀? Traditional card numbers, printed on physical cards, have long been a target for fraudsters. Whether through data breaches, skimming, or phishing attacks, stolen card details fuel billions of dollars in fraud losses annually. By removing the visible card number, Mastercard seeks to eliminate a critical vulnerability in the payment ecosystem. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗡𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿? Instead of a fixed 16-digit number, Mastercard will implement tokenization—a process where a unique, encrypted token replaces the actual card number. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀: ✅ No static card number to steal or misuse. ✅ Each transaction will have a unique identifier, making fraud much harder. ✅ Users will store their cards digitally, linked to biometric authentication (e.g., fingerprint, face recognition). 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁? 1️⃣ Consumers – More security and fewer worries about stolen card details. 2️⃣ Merchants – Reduced fraud risks and chargebacks. 3️⃣ Banks & Payment Providers – A stronger, safer payments ecosystem. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲? 💳 The physical card may become obsolete, as mobile wallets and biometric authentication become the standard. 🔐 Data security will improve, making payments safer for consumers and businesses. 📱 Digital-first banking will accelerate, favoring smartphone-based transactions over plastic cards. This shift marks a significant evolution in how we pay, shaping a more secure, seamless, and digital-first future. Get ready to say goodbye to 16-digit card numbers—and hello to a new era of payments! Curious about the future of Payments? Subscribe to my newsletter for more insights: https://lnkd.in/dXtzP3AV Find this helpful? [ 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 ] Anything to add about this subject? [𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁] Nice story, Marcel. Next! [ 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 ]

A VC perspective on AI InsurTech. Amir Kabir explored the state of artificial intelligence in the insurance industry. This essay is part of a broader series on the state and future of insurance innovation. As AI is probably the hottest topic in the market right now, it makes sense to dedicate an article to that specific technology. It starts with a reminder of AI technologies: its history, different trends this single word covers and major trends at work across industries. Then it deep dives into the insurance value chain by highlighting where machine learning models and technics are already leveraged, listing their strengths and weaknesses. It also details where the most value-added could be expected from adopting AI technologies. Ultimately, it highlights several use-cases already in place in the market on both incumbent and startup sides. ✨ Based on our own market watch in the European InsurTech ecosystem, I'd say that claim is probably where use-cases are the most advanced, while we currently see initiatives kicking off around distribution & customer relationship. Pricing is still in its early days - with limited number of players - while we expect a lot to happen around (emerging) risks ! #insurance #insurtech #artificialintelligence (BestOfH2)

This Housing Ramp Photo Just Went Viral – And Every Product Manager Needs to See It A wheelchair ramp abroad that's "technically compliant" but completely unusable. Steep slope, impossible navigation, pure checkbox thinking. Product Managers: 📌 SAVE this for your next compliance discussion. This ramp screams the same problem I see in fintech products daily: ✅ KYC implemented = compliant ❌ 47-step verification flow = user nightmare The brutal truth: Regulatory compliance can either kill your product or become your competitive edge. I've launched many fintech products. EVERY single one hit regulatory roadblocks. But here's what I learned: >>Compliance-first design isn't slower – it's faster. My 3-Step Framework: 1/ Design Integration - Embed compliance into UX from day one - Make verification feel seamless, not punishing - Test with real users, not just legal checklists 2/ Cross-Functional Collaboration - Get legal/compliance teams brainstorming solutions - Use data to show user impact, not just regulatory risk - Build bridges, not barriers between teams 3/ Validate Early & Often - Test compliance flows with actual users - Get regulator feedback before launch - Document everything, demonstrate impact Golden rule: Build WITH regulations, not around them. Because users can spot fake compliance instantly. But thoughtful regulatory design? That creates product differentiation and user trust. The companies winning in fintech aren't avoiding compliance – they're making it invisible. What's your biggest fintech compliance challenge? Share below in comments Like 👍 if this resonates, Share 🔄 to your network Follow me (Monica Jasuja) for more product insights that actually ship.

But what if insurance worked more like Netflix? Netflix tracks your viewing behavior and adapts recommendations instantly. If insurance products adapting the same way, premiums adjusting dynamically to fitness levels, coverage expanding with life stages, benefits rebalancing as goals evolve. McKinsey estimates AI-led personalization could lift insurer revenues by 10–15%, while lowering claims costs through early risk detection. And The technology already exists. Wearables generate 250+ daily data points per user around heart rate, sleep, activity. PwC reports 63% of consumers are willing to share health data if it results in cheaper or more personalized premiums. And Personlaized premiums is not a distant reality. It can be achieved by: 𝟏. 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐩𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 that allow secure ingestion of health and behavioral data at scale. 𝟐. 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐛𝐨𝐱𝐞𝐬 that encourage innovation while protecting privacy. 𝟑. 𝐀𝐈 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 to ensure transparent pricing and avoid hidden bias. 𝟒. 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 with health-tech, fintech, and wellness players to broaden value delivery. Insurance is likely evolve from a once-in-a-decade purchase to a living product. #DigitalIndia #Fintech #AI #technology #Fintech #AI #technology

Mpesa just got an insurance license, and it's about to shake up the insurance industry like never before! Imagine a world where you can buy insurance as easily as you buy airtime. Here’s what’s coming: "Press 1 for Life Insurance" – Soon, insurance will be just a few clicks away on Mpesa. Car insurance, life insurance... Insurtech is here to make insurance purchasing as casual as sending Ksh 50 to your favorite cousin. Underwriting with AI – Thanks to algorithms, Mpesa might soon know more about your risk profile than you do. Instead of high-premium mystery quotes, expect insurance plans that understand your needs – from the cautious commuter to the "I swear I'll be safe" adrenaline junkie. The Rise of Flexible Plans – Get ready for insurance that can match your life’s rhythm. Mpesa could start offering policies that adjust based on whether you’re bungee jumping on weekends or just trying to navigate Nairobi traffic on a Monday. Embedded Insurance Everywhere – In the not-so-distant future, you might get life coverage when you buy a smartphone or health insurance with your gym membership. Your “Welcome to Mpesa” starter pack might just come with insurance, too. So buckle up; insurance in Kenya is about to become as easy as buying groceries. Just don’t be surprised if you start seeing push notifications from Mpesa reminding you to update your “adventure insurance” before your next weekend getaway! With M-Pesa obtaining an insurance license, banks and insurance companies in Kenya face a shift in the competitive landscape. Here are the implications: Increased Competition: M-Pesa can undercut traditional insurers with lower premiums and faster onboarding, particularly targeting low- to middle-income individuals and small businesses who are typically underserved by traditional insurers. Enhanced Customer Reach: M-Pesa's reach gives it a significant advantage, especially in remote and underserved areas where insurance penetration is low. Banks and traditional insurers may need to expand their digital outreach to stay competitive. New Product Innovations: With M-Pesa's tech capabilities, it could drive more innovative, user-friendly, and flexible insurance products—such as microinsurance, which may be bundled with other mobile-based financial services. This pushes traditional providers to innovate as well. Increased Financial Inclusion: For the financial sector, especially banks, M-Pesa’s entry could be beneficial in terms of financial inclusion, as more individuals who may not have previously accessed financial products like insurance are now introduced to it. This could create cross-selling opportunities if banks can partner effectively with M-Pesa. Pressure on Cost and Efficiency: M-Pesa’s digital platform allows for efficient, low-cost operations, which may put pressure on traditional providers to reduce their overheads and improve efficiency. Traditional banks and insurers to stay competitive?🤔

Most S/4HANA projects treat finance as a downstream activity. That's backwards. After 15 years in SAP Finance, I've seen what happens when finance isn't driving the transformation from day one. You get technical go-lives that work on paper but fail in practice. Excel workarounds multiply. Finance teams get blamed for design flaws they never controlled. Here's what actually works: **Establish Finance as Design Authority from Phase -1** Before blueprinting starts, map your finance capabilities and pain points. Your S/4HANA solution architecture should reflect finance strategy, not just replicate ECC processes. If finance isn't challenging the design, you're building the wrong system. **Embed Finance integration in every workstream** Procurement, logistics, sales every process generates financial data. If you design these without finance governance, you'll retrofit later at 3x the cost. Finance needs a seat in every design decision, not just FI/CO workshops. **Leverage Universal Journal as your transformation catalyst** Real-time consolidation, embedded analytics, automated reconciliation these aren't add-ons. They're core S/4HANA capabilities that change how finance operates. But only if you design for them in blueprint, not discover them post-go-live. **Lock in quick wins during hypercare** Accelerate month-end close by 30%. Automate intercompany matching. Retire legacy Excel reporting. These prove transformation ROI when the business is watching closest right after go-live. Finance can't be an afterthought in S/4HANA. If you're planning or in the middle of a finance transformation, what's your biggest challenge right now? #S4HANA #SAPFinance #Digitaltransformation

In 2021, I became the first woman to head a unicorn in Israel, AKA Startup Nation. In many parts of the world, women are excluded from even the most basic financial services, so leading a fintech company is far from their reality. United Nations data estimates that 3.8 billion women live in the world, 50% of which are adults. According to the World Bank’s Global Findex Database, 1.4 billion of those 1.9 billion adult women, are unbanked. That’s 73.65%. Visit that statistic again. It represents a disturbing gender gap in financial access, with women being far less likely than men to have bank accounts or access formal financial services. This financial exclusion has personal impact. It diminishes women’s economic empowerment by restricting access to education and limiting their potential for personal growth and independence. It makes women more financially dependent, and therefore, more vulnerable. There's economic impact, too. Research by McKinsey highlights the economic loss due to financial exclusion of women, noting that closing the gender gap in labor force participation could add trillions to global GDP. Financial inclusion isn’t just a matter of equality – ensuring the same opportunities for all. It’s a matter of equity - ensuring women have the tools and access they need to fully participate in the global economy. That’s where technology enters the picture to level the field. The rise of mobile banking is a great example of innovation enhancing financial inclusion. According to a report by the International Finance Corporation, mobile money accounts are more popular among women in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, where access to traditional banking is limited. Various fintechs provide financial literacy resources, helping women understand financial products, budgeting, and saving strategies. Other solutions include AI-driven platforms that offer personalized recommendations and advice, empowering women to make informed financial decisions. Aside from personal apps and solutions, fintechs can facilitate community-based lending and saving initiatives, allowing women to support each other through group savings or microfinance schemes, fostering a sense of solidarity and shared purpose. This International Women’s Day’s theme is "accelerate action". In my mind, nothing accelerates action like innovation. As we mark International Women's Day, let’s advocate and innovate to enhance financial inclusion for women worldwide. #IWD2025 #financialInclusion Papaya Global

I just returned from #SAPSapphire Madrid 2025, where I had the opportunity to engage with many customers from across Europe. As a software company headquartered in the region, SAP is uniquely positioned to drive innovation in Europe and help organizations harness Business AI effectively and responsibly. A key focus of our discussions was: How can Business AI drive value creation and position finance as a strategic partner within organizations? At both Sapphire Orlando and Madrid, we unveiled significant AI advancements, including our partnership with Mistral AI to bring advanced agentic AI to core finance processes. Our new Accruals Agent, set for general availability in Q3 2025, will automate journal entry preparation for accruals by analyzing historical data and financial patterns, significantly reducing manual work and accelerating month-end close processes. We also introduced an expanded network of AI agents, orchestrated by our AI assistant Joule, which are designed to reimagine business processes across systems and lines of business. These agents leverage SAP Business Data Cloud to access enterprise data and act across both SAP and third-party systems, with a deep understanding of data structures, semantics, and processes. Some highlights include: ▪️ Dispute Resolution Agent: Reasons through disputed details and relevant business records to validate cases and propose solutions. It acts on human-approved resolutions to quickly close disputes, improve cash flow, and enhance customer satisfaction. ▪️ Accounts Receivable Agent: Processes data related to overdue receivables and performs appropriate follow-up tasks with customers, saving time by analyzing open items, minimizing bad-debt write-offs, and reducing the number of days sales outstanding.   These innovations demonstrate the immense potential of agentic AI for finance functions and beyond. Our agents go beyond serving suggestions; using advanced reasoning capabilities, they can "think" through business problems, coordinate across systems, decide on actions, and act autonomously – with human oversight. I encourage you to explore these and other advancements in our SAP Sapphire Innovation Guide: https://lnkd.in/eC8Z4NE9

When Fintech gets it wrong: Horror stories & how not to become one. In fintech, innovation is celebrated—but when things go wrong, the outcomes can quickly become the stuff of nightmares. Having spent two decades navigating the regulated fintech world, I've witnessed more regulatory disasters than I'd care to admit. Trust me, you don't want your fintech startup becoming the cautionary tale others share over coffee. Here's the dark side of fintech—mistakes, missteps, mishaps—& crucially, how you can avoid them. Horror story #1: The billion-dollar 'Oops' In 2023, fintech fines globally reached a terrifying $6 billion, according to Fenergo. From misreporting to outright negligence, many startups learned that 'move fast & break things' doesn't work when regulators are watching. Lesson? Speed matters, but compliance matters more. How to dodge this bullet: • Invest early in robust compliance teams & frameworks. • Embed compliance within your culture—not just as an afterthought. Horror story #2: The Crypto catastrophe Last year alone, Chainalysis reported $3.5 billion in digital asset theft—mostly due to poor security hygiene in fintech platforms. The market isn't forgiving: one security breach & your customers vanish quicker than you can say 'crypto crash.' How to dodge this bullet: • Adopt bank-grade security standards (ISO/IEC 27001, SOC2, etc.). • Conduct regular penetration tests—think of them as annual health checks for your business. Horror story #3: Lost in translation (or, regulatory miscommunication) Regulators shut down operations at several high-profile fintech startups recently, not because they were malicious—but because they failed to clearly communicate & demonstrate compliance. Remember, regulators don’t speak your language; you must learn theirs. How to dodge this bullet: • Foster regular, proactive communication with regulatory bodies. • Train your leadership team in regulatory fluency—make it part of the CEO’s toolkit. Your Fintech survival kit: 1. Stay paranoid: Assume vulnerabilities exist & constantly hunt them down. 2. Be proactive, not reactive: Stay ahead of regulatory changes—anticipate & adapt. 3. Transparency is currency: Clearly articulate your compliance standards to customers, regulators, & investors alike. Nobody wants their fintech legacy defined by horror stories. Embrace these lessons, avoid these missteps, & ensure that your fintech journey is remembered for innovation—not for being the cautionary tale at next year’s fintech conference. #Fintech #Leadership #Compliance #Crypto #Innovation #Security #Regulation #CEOInsights #Management #Business #FinancialTechnology

I'm happy to share the release of the #WiSER White Paper, "Igniting a Global Sustainable Economy," following the impactful discussions at the WiSER Annual Forum during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week - ADSW 2025. This report highlights the critical role of female entrepreneurs in driving climate solutions and provides actionable strategies to bridge gender gaps in finance, scalability, AI, mentorship, and accessibility—especially for women in the Global South. Why This Matters: Women-led ventures are key to unlocking innovation in sustainability, yet systemic barriers persist. This paper outlines 5 recommendations: 🔹 Increase Gender-Focused Investment : Boost funding, financial literacy, and microloans for female-led climate projects. 🔹 Scale Women-Led Ventures : Streamline policies and partnerships to accelerate growth. 🔹 Harness AI & Digital Tools: Bridge the AI literacy and access gap to empower business expansion. 🔹 Strengthen Mentorship and Networking: Build cross-sector collaborations to provide women with the resources to succeed. 🔹 Empower Women in the Global South : Address legal and financial barriers, invest in STEM education, and improve access to markets and resources. Dive into the full report below or on Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company)’s website for insights on turning these strategies into action: https://lnkd.in/dyAFPEP2 Thanks again to my fellow roundtable participants: Lawratou Bah, CFA, Mirella Amalia Vitale, Natasha Shenoy, Hajar Alketbi, Manal B., Mariam Alnaqbi, Shaima Al Mulla