Blaine serves as advisor to CFI since June 2020, where he is supporting the strategic integration of MIX and CFI.  Prior to CFI, Blaine served as COO at MIX, joining in 2002.  At MIX, he worked with investors, donors, regulators, financial services providers and a team of analysts to create the reporting standards, benchmarks, other information products and market incentives necessary to build data and insights to advance financial inclusion. Blaine has 20 years of experience in microfinance and financial inclusion. Prior to joining MIX, Blaine helped develop the start-up operations for a Moroccan MFI, Al Amana, and collaborated with UNCDF on the development and roll-out of an online microfinance training course for donors and practitioners. Blaine speaks English, French, and basic Arabic and German.

Former COO, MIX

Chrissy Martin Meier

Blaine Stephens

Report

Investment capital is flowing into fintech startups, yet it is still challenging to get capital to many fintechs addressing last-mile challenges. Evidence suggests this is driven in large part by a lack of information. Using data collected to test an initial set of Data Standards for Inclusive Fintech, this report presents insights into what we can learn about fintechs as businesses and how they address challenges of inclusion. This report was made possible by generous support from MetLife Foundation.

Results of the Fintech Benchmarks Proof-of-Concept

Nikhil Gehani

Marie Valdez

Fintech investment is booming. In 2018, a record USD 111.8 billion was invested in fintech, and the sector garnered extensive media coverage and interest. But despite fintech’s growing profile—and even though it can help unlock trillions of dollars in value by reaching financially underserved households and businesses—fintech solutions have yet to reach the majority of the financially excluded.
It is against this backdrop that we at MIX worked with MetLife Foundation, Visa Inc., Accion, and IFC to launch the Inclusive Fintech 50, the first global effort to spotlight early- stage fintechs driving financial inclusion. Four key findings emerged from our analysis of applicant data. We believe these findings can help funders, investors, and fintechs in their financial inclusion efforts. The Inclusive Fintech 50 applicant pool provides new insights into inclusion-focused fintech, itself a subset of the fintech universe. By highlighting these high-potential companies, we hope to support the efforts of investors, banking partners, and other fintechs working towards a financially inclusive world.

Inclusive Fintech 50 White Paper [2019]

Antoine Navarro

The findings from this research highlight the demand for standard metrics to guide decision making on alternative delivery channels in a changing environment. The research also indicates that financial service providers must begin by updating their reporting systems and dashboards to track these metrics. Doing so will allow them to analyze alternative delivery channel performance within their institutions and also to contribute their data to create visibility onto the overall market.

Blaine Stephens

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