When we think about financial inclusion, it’s tempting to associate it with poorer populations in emerging countries where cash is still the driver for a high percentage of transactions. Even though 43% of sub-Saharan Africans have an account at a bank or with a mobile money service provider(1), the vast majority of purchases are still completed using cash. In Nigeria, for example, the rate is 95%.

Open Banking, the UK’s implementation of Europe’s Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), has had something of a slow start, with limited adoption, then COVID-19 and Brexit hitting but the principles behind it are solid. Its fundamental changes to how banks handle financial information mean that banks can now share the kind of information that you would see on an account statement with authorised providers – with a client’s permission of course – and add a host of security, scalability and flexibility features that open up the possibility for new revenue streams for merchants.

PayGlobe is an Italian company specialising in solutions for the management of payments and integration of loyalty and CRM through a multi-acquiring system. Ingenico, a Worldline brand, is the largest European player in payment services. Working together, both companies leveraged their payments expertise to support the needs of Mondo Convenienza stores, a leading Italian chain of large-scale distribution of furniture and furnishing accessories.

On 11th March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. At the time of writing, hundreds of thousands of lives and businesses have been affected. With multiple countries issuing bans on travel across borders and ordering shutdowns of cities and towns, many businesses are seeing the virus take its toll.

How can payment solutions be changed into a driver of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility (CSR)? While more and more companies in the retail sector are adopting solidarity rounding, allowing customers to make micro-donations when they pay, other solutions are also emerging to create social value from payment transactions, while reducing the carbon footprint linked to the purchasing act.