Pockets of unbanked and underbanked communities in South Africa and other African countries could benefit from point of sale (POS) financing like BNPL since these offerings also act as alternative credit solutions.

They each help Amazon reach consumers who have limited access to digital payments, bringing the 7.1 million US unbanked households and 38 million people receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or other government benefits into its purview.

Greenwood’s targeted communities make up larger proportions of unbanked and underbanked people than their population shares. Black and Latino Americans face disproportionate financial obstacles, per data cited by Fast Company, including Black loan-applicants facing an 80% higher rejection rate than their white counterparts.

This year, we project that digital-only banks will recover strongly by meeting pent-up demand from their major demographics: the unbanked, Gen Z, and Millennials. We expect demand to normalize by 2023, and that digital-only banks will follow a growth trajectory similar to incumbents, albeit from a higher base.

Why this could succeed: By targeting migrant communities broadly, Majority could make fast inroads with unbanked and underbanked consumers. New migrants to the US may need a bank account to join the US banking environment.

It has a large addressable market within the approximately 60 million-strong Latino population: Citing Federal Reserve data, the neobank notes that 10% of US Hispanics are unbanked, while another 22% are underbanked. Providing banking products tailored to underserved Latinos may give the company a chance to lock in loyal customers within an untapped group ahead of expanding its reach.

Square’s hardware wallet plan could extend its reach in the growing crypto market and could lead to global collaborations—for example, the firm might lend its offering to countries like El Salvador to provide digital payment solutions to unbanked populations. And while Dorsey’s tweets only mentioned Bitcoin, Square could expand the wallet to include other digital currencies, opening up new use cases.

MoneyGram’s partnership with Coinme could therefore be key in helping expand crypto trading access to unbanked and underbanked consumers who want to take advantage of cryptos’ surge in popularity. It will likely help drive more traffic to MoneyGram locations. The remittance giant’s brick-and-mortar business suffered as a result of the pandemic—total revenues declined 6% in 2020.

Neobanks are strategically targeting the unbanked population and tech-savvy millennials with their cost-effective structures (no monthly fees, no withdrawal or overdraft costs), along with offering personalized customer experiences (budgeting and money-tracking tools, real-time balances).

The country’s massive unbanked population and digitally engaged consumers make it ripe for disruption. As of 2018, only 37% of Mexico’s adult population had a bank account, while the remaining 63% relied mostly on cash to transact within the country. On top of that, just 15% of adults have access to a credit card.

This is due to a combination of large under- and unbanked populations across the region; a dearth of card payment systems at a time when they were becoming common in the West; and a resulting leap directly from cash payments to the widespread use of digital finance products launched by digital companies, catalyzing the rise of embedded finance.

General-purpose prepaid cards, which have historically been popular among under- and unbanked consumers, may have grown as users looked for a cash replacement amid the pandemic. Further, job loss or other forms of financial insecurity could have moved fully banked customers away from their traditional financial services relationships, in turn pushing them away from debit and toward prepaid.