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The Acquire Podcast Ep. 10: FICO hyper targets local communities in its push for greater financial literacy
In episode 10 of Acquire, Tearsheet’s Marketing Podcast, host Rebecca Alma Cohen, Head of Tearsheet Studios, speaks with Nikhil Behl – the CMO of FICO.
FICO was founded way back in 1956, making it one of the oldest standing firms in the financial industry. Today we’ll talk about how it manages to keep its relevance and purpose in today’s world.
Additionally, Nikhil speaks about what FICO has been doing things the past few years in response to the changing world, especially during the pandemic, and specifically about their recent marketing campaign Score a Better Future, which puts forwards credit education and free resources for consumers.
The promise of employment data in the gig economy
Nearly half (49%) of 1099 workers reported being rejected for financial products they could afford. Why?
More people are self-employed today than they have been in 20 years, with the trend expected to continue. What’s more, independent workers are pulling income from multiple, often diverse, gigs, largely due to rapid technological advancements and lightning bolt global events.
Yet, our legacy financial infrastructures cater to traditional W2 workers with single, full-time jobs. The industry inadvertently marginalizes self-employed, 1099 workers, who struggle to access financial products like credit cards and loans.
In our latest whitepaper, we break down what the lending space needs to know, the groundwork for what FIs are missing – and all the ways leveraging alternative data can lead the way to a more inclusive financial system.
Download the whitepaper (sponsored by Argyle)
The latest briefing
Banking Briefing: Open banking in Africa & how to make finance fun
Okra is a Nigerian open banking platform. Founded in 2019, Okra was one of the first of its kind in the African open banking space. The company aims to be a portal between financial service providers and consumers’ financial data.
Okra’s services include fintech capabilities within payments, banking, lending, personal finance, and business finance. For now, Okra’s focus is to serve companies in Nigeria. That may be a pretty natural starting point – according to Peterside, co-founder of Okra -- not only is Nigeria the largest market on the continent but it’s also predicted to be the third-largest country in the world by 2050. Still, Okra’s goal is to eventually spread across Africa.
In terms of product expansion, the fintech is looking more seriously at money movement. So can open banking solve financial inclusion across Africa?
Read more (exclusive to Outlier members)
Just look at the charts
1. Meta-work for the masses?
Source: Chris Gledhill | gledhill.eth
2. Monthly mortgage payments = major chunk of the income
Source: Michael A. Gayed, CFA
Today's stories
Is Revolut going public?
The neobank is looking for a head of Investor Relations, who will hire up to two Investor Relations analysts, a move often taken by firms ahead of them going public (AltFi)
Wise and Monzo partner to bolster international payments
Remittance platform Wise has partnered with Monzo to support international payments --- after the Wise partnership, over 100,000 of Monzo’s business customers will have access to transfers abroad from the Monzo app (The Paypers)
Mambu and Brim Financial team up on new digital banking offering
Banking technology vendor Mambu is teaming with US-based fintech Brim Financial to deliver a new digital banking platform in North America (FinTech Futures)
'World-first' green fintech taxonomy goes live
The Green Digital Finance Alliance and the Swiss Green Fintech Network launched the initial version of the world’s first green fintech classification -- a tool to mature the understanding of green fintech markets and stimulate more innovation and adoption (Finextra)
Firms are on the lookout for innovative cross-border payments
With nearly 95% of cross-border workers paid by bank transfer today, more companies are taking a serious look at payments platforms that are less costly, full-featured, and faster for international hires (PYMNTS)
Stay ahead of the game with Outlier -- Tearsheet’s exclusive members-only content program and join the leading financial services and fintech innovators reading us every day.