S6E4: Financial Inclusion and the Impact of FinTech
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When it comes to creating more equitable access to economic opportunities, like buying a house or getting a loan to start a small business, financial technology innovations are moving the needle faster than almost anything else.
Joining us today to talk about FinTech and the role it plays in economic equality are Ryan Christiansen and Steve Smith. Ryan Christiansen is the Executive Director of the Stena Center for Financial Technology at the University of Utah. In this role, Ryan directs and coordinates the labs, venture fund, incubator, and student programs at the center.
Steve Smith is one of the co-founders and creators of the Stena Foundation and currently serves as Chief Engagement Officer, Global Open Banking for MasterCard. He believes that financial inclusion and quality education can be a catalyst for change and can break the chains of generational poverty to lift local economies.
Steve and Ryan join host Frances Johnson to discuss how FinTech innovations can help bridge the gaps in economic inclusion, how Utah plays a role in the greater FinTech landscape, and building out the intention and future of the Stena Center.
Eccles Business Buzz is a production of the David Eccles School of Business and is produced by University FM.
Episode Quotes:
The small and medium-sized business success in global financial inclusion
[25:24] Steve Smith: The success of the small and medium-sized business is really important in the world economy for driving economic impact and financial inclusion at a higher level. Think about this: if every small and medium-sized business, to the extent they hire employees, were more successful and able to hire just one more employee next year across the world, what level of economic impact would that have?
You start thinking in terms of that, and then you start thinking about where the center can play a meaningful role in helping individuals, families, communities, entire nations kind of lift themselves from the foundation up, rather than trying to put band-aids on problem sets that are always repeat problem sets. So, I think that’s where the focus is in fintech and financial services and really democratizing financial inclusion in very meaningful ways.
The role of intention at Stena Center
[15:00] Ryan Christansen: What I think is so important about the Stena Center is intention. So we’ve had a lot of success, as we’ve both talked about in the state of Utah around FinTech, and there’s some other cities around the world or areas around the country that have had some success. I think what makes it really special here in Utah is truly that intention.
Small and medium-sized businesses fuels the world economy
[25:24] Steve Smith: What’s really important for the Stena Foundation is: What are the fundamental building blocks of economic success and economic mobility—let’s call it—that create enduring economic empowerment? For individuals, I think that you always have to wrap in small and medium-sized businesses because they fuel so much of the world’s economy. And so, I think the center is great. A great example of bringing academics together with industry together with philanthropy, right? So you’ve got three verticals that sometimes operate independently and a center that does best in class, bringing them all together.
On Utah as an epicenter for Fintech
[09:05] Ryan Christansen: It’s a really exciting place here in Utah when you look at it from various aspects. And I’ll start with maybe the universities in Utah. You’ve got a lot of highly educated people coming out of the university system that have been starting these businesses, whether they’re technology businesses or FinTech businesses, and there’s really been a long history of that in the state of Utah…So you’ve got a lot of kinds of startup mentality with the educational system, doing a lot of innovation as well.
