June 2026
03Jun

Germany’s 2027 pension shake-up: who wins and who loses?

Germany’s life insurance sector is facing its most significant competitive disruption in a generation, according to financial analytics firm Kidbrooke. With landmark pension reform legislation now confirmed, incumbent insurers have a narrowing window to modernise their digital infrastructure or risk being outpaced by nimbler rivals on day one of the new market. The reform centres on the Altersvorsorgedepot, a new state-subsidised private pension savings account passed by the Bundestag in March 2026 and approved by the Bundesrat on 8 May 2026,...

June 3, 2026
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March 2026
06Mar

War and Digital Financial Inclusion: Role of Digital Financial Services in War and Armed Conflict

By Peterson K Ozili This article explores the trend in digital financial inclusion during war. It also explores the importance and challenges of digital financial inclusion during war. War and armed conflict adversely affect people. Their struggle to survive the war becomes even more difficult when they are unable to visit a bank branch to access formal financial services during war due to lockdowns and curfews that lead to the closure of physical financial access points. This study gathers insights...

March 6, 2026
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04Mar

Pakistan’s digital banking users top 127 million amid shift to cashless economy

Pakistani officials told Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday the number of digital banking users in the country had surpassed 127 million, the PM Office said, as the government pushes ahead with efforts to promote a cashless economy. Pakistan has witnessed significant growth in digital transactions in recent years. The country’s central bank said last year that its instant digital payment system, Raast, had processed more than 892 million transactions worth Rs20 trillion ($72 billion) since its launch in 2021. During...

March 4, 2026
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February 2026
11Feb

Nigeria Turns to Fintech Model to Fix Informal Sector Pension

For six years, Nigeria’s “Micro Pension Plan” (MPP) has been inactive. It was launched in 2019 by the Buhari administration to include millions of traders, artisans, and gig workers in the pension system. However, progress has stalled. As of Q3 2024, only about 164,000 out of a target of roughly 75 million informal workers had registered. Of these, only about 12,000 had funded accounts. This means coverage is effectively zero. On Monday, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) made a significant change....

February 11, 2026
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November 2025
14Nov

Digital finance and retirement planning: The role of information cost reduction and trust enhancement channels

By Liang Liu & Zhen Ju With the rapid development of digitalization, retirement decisions are increasingly being mediated by digital finance platforms, which help individuals in effectively managing and planning their retirement. Existing literature primarily focuses on the impacts of financial literacy, risk attitudes, and awareness of retirement goals. Using data from the 2015 China Household Finance Survey, we investigate the effect of digital finance on household retirement planning. Our analysis reveals that digital payment lowers the acquisition cost of pension finance...

November 14, 2025
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September 2025
23Sep

UK. PensionBee Urges Pensions Commission to Deliver Bold Reforms to Secure Better Retirements for Millions of UK Savers

Millions risk being condemned to retirement poverty unless the UK’s pensions system is overhauled, PensionBee has warned, as it calls on the Pensions Commission to deliver bold reforms to tackle deep-rooted structural inequalities. In a letter to the Commission, the leading online pension provider highlights how women, unpaid carers, the self-employed and lower-paid workers are being locked out of the progress achieved through Auto-Enrolment, while many others are being held back by a pensions market that is too complex and...

September 23, 2025
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August 2025
20Aug

Financial inclusion, mobile money and the rural, informal economy

FINTECH has revolutionalised banking activities globally over the past one decade so tremendously in both scale and scope. In developing countries, it has brought banking within the reach of many hitherto disadvantaged cohorts of the populace, thus drawing them into the ever-widening circle of those having access to banking operations. It has also contributed significantly to wealth creation within the underprivileged populace, providing regular incomes and access to credit in many instances. Africa has opened up and started to...

August 20, 2025
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December 2024
10Dec

Onze recaudó US$19M en Serie A para aumentar las pensiones corporativas en Brasil

Onze, la Fintech centrada en las pensiones privadas corporativas, acaba de lanzar una ronda para crecer en un mercado valorado en más de US$150 mil millones y todavía dominado por los grandes bancos. Antonio Rocha fundó Onze junto con Rodrigo Neves, con quien trabajó durante años en McKinsey. Para crear la empresa, los dos obtuvieron financiación inicial de Red Ventures, una empresa estadounidense que invierte y crea negocios desde cero y que sigue siendo el mayor accionista de la startup. La idea de...

December 10, 2024
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06Dec

Fintech, Visual Attention, and Financial Inclusion: A Field Experiment on Migrant Remittances

By Eduardo Nakasone, Máximo Torero & Angelino Viceisza Migrant remittances are significant but remain relatively costly to send. Policymakers have argued that fintech, specifically, comparison websites like kayak.com but for sending money, can boost financial inclusion and reduce remittance prices. Yet, little is known about how migrants with limited education and trust in digital methods interact with fintech. We conduct a field experiment on a comparison website and vary remittance-company attributes shown to migrants, specifically, the time for delivery and...

December 6, 2024
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October 2024
24Oct

Pensionbee’s strategic US expansion backed by £20m funding as fintech eyes global pension market

Pensionbee, the online retirement savings provider, reported positive adjusted earnings in the last quarter and raised £20m for its US expansion. The London-based fintech firm saw a revenue increase in the third quarter, jumping to £9m from £6m the previous year. The company anticipates breaking even on an adjusted EBITDA basis by 2024. For the third quarter, it recorded its second consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA at £1m, as reported by City AM The firm also reported £5.5bn in assets under...

October 24, 2024
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