7. Fintech, Bigtech and Banks in India and Africa

The disruption within the financial ecosystems of India and Africa was made possible by pressure on the competitive landscape that did mobilize many financial resources (respectively in IT for Indian incumbents and in M&A for African incumbents). As such, these banks were not able to attend properly the challenge of inclusive growth. At the same period, African mobile operators such as M-PESA paved the way toward mobile payments in Kenya whereas the Indian regional entrepreneurial ecosystem in Bangalore was taking off apart from BPO. With the subprime crisis and the advent of big data and digitization, big techs and financial start-ups took the opportunity to disrupt the local financial ecosystems as incumbents were already weakened. Despite low average incomes, poor financial inclusiveness and a negative legacy, both Indian and African financial ecosystems are the most dynamic at the global scale providing some relevant insights for benchmark for their counterparts.