Financial Inclusion via Hyper-Personalized Sustainable Banking – A Model for the Global South?

Abstract

Financial inclusion has been identified as a one of the most crucial factors fighting poverty, the imperative objective of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Since 1.5 billion people and less than three quarters in the Global South have sufficient access to financial services, this contribution will present the idea of automated hyper-personalized sustainable banking to foster and accelerate financial inclusion. The presented approach is based on a survey of 4,690 participants conducted in five countries and a theoretical framework developed by Harnack & Moons (2023) that measured financial needs, motivational concepts, individual values, and demographic data to create a fit between individual financial needs and goals of a person and a potential financial service. To make this approach sustainable and to ensure that it is applied in a useful manner, individual needs are constructed not only focusing on the monetary domain, but also concerning ESG-criteria (Environment, Social and Governance). In addition, the automated framework includes the gradual development of financial literacy. In sum, the existing framework of goal and value-based banking (Harnack and Moons, 2023) will be presented and discussed, in order needs adjust, test, extend this tool to function as a gateway to more financial inclusion. In addition, implications for practitioners and future avenues of research will be discussed.