Singapore, 23 September 2015 (Wednesday) – MasterCard and Singapore Management University (SMU) today announced their partnership in a novel Social and Financial Inclusion Programme.  The multi-faceted two-year programme will catalyse important research on social entrepreneurship, innovation and financial inclusion.  It also features an annual Forum, a seminar series, funding towards student projects, as well as the establishment of the MasterCard Professorship of Social Entrepreneurship and Financial Inclusion, where a designated SMU faculty member will provide academic leadership for the Programme alongside Professor Howard Thomas, the Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB) Distinguished Term Professor of Strategic Management and Director of SMU’s Academic Strategy and Management Education Unit.

With an emphasis on the Southeast Asia and South Asia regions, the Programme's research focus will include identifying scalable and sustainable social entrepreneurship and innovation business models; advancing financial inclusion for marginalised communities and micro-entrepreneurs; developing innovative financial products and services for those at the base of the pyramid; as well as studying the roles of public-private partnership and philanthropy, the macroeconomic impacts of financial and social inclusion, and the policy and regulatory environments that enable financial inclusion.

The research outcomes will be presented at an annual MasterCard-SMU Forum on social inclusion and economic value creation, the first of which will be held in mid-2016.  In addition, a seminar series will provide advanced training on the approaches and best practices of social and financial inclusion for senior government officials, central bankers, regulators and senior business executives in Asia Pacific.

Under the Programme, SMU students also stand to benefit as they will be able to tap on MasterCard’s funding and support towards their student consulting projects on social and financial inclusion in select Asia Pacific countries.

In addition to the MasterCard Professorship of Social Entrepreneurship and Financial Inclusion, MasterCard and SMU also announced the Board of Advisors which will provide the overall direction and guidance for the Program.  The three members who form the Board are: Professor Howard Thomas; Professor David Lee, Executive/Academic Director of Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics, SMU; and Dr Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, Chief Economist, MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, and Global Economic Advisor, MasterCard.

This new initiative is just the latest collaboration between MasterCard and SMU.  Over the last five years, MasterCard has supported 13 postgraduate students in the SMU MBA programme as part of the MasterCard MBA Scholarships for Women.

[Photo: MasterCard and Singapore Management University (SMU) establish new two-year Social and Financial Inclusion Programme. (L-R) SMU President, Professor Arnoud De Meyer and MasterCard Co-President, Asia Pacific, Ari Sarker.]

Professor Gerard George, Dean of SMU LKCSB and Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, said, “LKCSB is glad to partner with MasterCard in this meaningful initiative to create upward social mobility opportunities for those who are unbanked or in poverty.  With our faculty expertise in research on social inclusion and innovation combined with MasterCard’s expertise in payment systems, we will explore how we could create novel business models and encourage saving behaviours.  This project is a clear example of how industry can work together with academia to create positive social change and impact.”

Professor Howard Thomas said, “I am convinced that this important research programme will produce meaningful, practical and impactful research findings that will stimulate innovators in emerging economies in Asia to build critical expertise in social entrepreneurship and financial inclusion to facilitate economic growth.”

Ari Sarker, Co-President, Asia Pacific, MasterCard, said, “An overwhelming body of evidence shows that providing people with the ability to save and borrow efficiently and securely improves well-being and encourages enterprise, ultimately reducing global poverty and increasing economic growth. Yet two billion people around the world remain unbanked. By partnering with SMU to establish a Social and Financial Inclusion Program, we hope that new, innovative solutions will be discovered that will help us bring the benefits of products and services to Asia Pacific’s unbanked population.”

- End -

____________________________________________________

For media enquiries, please contact:

Georgette Tan, MasterCard, +65 6390 5971, georgette_tan [at] mastercard.com

Samantha Yong, Weber Shandwick, +65 6825 8053, samyong [at] webershandwick.com

Huang Peiling, SMU, +65 6828 0964, plhuang [at] smu.edu.sg