Inverse Fintech: Nineteen Claims for Debate (International Journal of Advanced Academic Research)

Summary

• The discussion note sets out nineteen statements about Inverse Fintech, ordered from least to most contestable.p.1
• Inverse Fintech is an asset-first approach to financial inclusion: a productive physical asset is placed with a household first and financial information is generated afterwards.p.1
• The statements fall into four tiers: descriptive, plausible premises, hypotheses to be tested and normative positions.p.1
• The concept is illustrated with a tested second-life solar panel placed with a household.p.2
• The Kenya pilot described in the research prospectus is designed to examine the Tier 3 hypotheses.p.3

Key insights

1. The note is a discussion document that reports no empirical findings.p.1
2. While the asset depreciates, the financial information it generates may appreciate in economic and institutional value.p.1
3. A premise offered is that the scarcest resource in financial inclusion is verified information, not capital.p.3
4. The value of verified information is said to grow with the number of institutions that trust it.p.3
5. A hypothesis is that credit history is a by-product of productive ownership, not a precondition for inclusion.p.3
6. The normative position is that credit-first finance charges the poor for their lack of history, while asset-first finance pays them in history.p.4