At Bank.org, we have been working on a cool new innovation solution in New York that engages ideas below. 

Gunnar 

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Having access to a bank account and savings is key to lifting living standards, but as my colleague Shabtai Gold reports, high interest rates around the world are seeing investors flee perceived risky investments in emerging markets, including fintech. It’s bad news at a time when global poverty rates are rising for the first time in a generation.

“Under the zero interest rates in developed markets, there was a lot of appetite from investors in the U.S. and Europe to jump into new emerging markets,” John Fischer, chief investment officer at impact investing nonprofit Accion tells Shabtai. “But certainly on the inclusive fintech side, we’ve seen a pause on that.”

Among Fischer’s proposed solutions: International financial institutions need to step in to create markets and build local capacity, while nonfinancial firms can boost things such as supply chain financing and insurance programs, known in the jargon as “embedded finance.”

Farmers getting insurance as part of their seed purchases are more resilient to climate shocks, for instance. Just one of the ways financial inclusion helps other development objectives.