Riding on the strong partnership that both organisations have enjoyed over the last five years, Singapore Management University (SMU) and MasterCard today announced the launch of a novel, multi-faceted Social and Financial Inclusion Programme which will catalyse important research on social entrepreneurship, innovation and financial inclusion.

The two-year programme will comprise 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.

The research focus, which will centre on the Southeast Asia and South Asia regions, 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.

Research outcomes will be presented at an annual MasterCard–SMU Forum on social inclusion and economic value creation; a seminar series will also 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.

SMU students stand to benefit from the Programme too, 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.

“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,” said Professor Gerard George, Dean of SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB) and Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

“This project is a clear example of how industry can work together with academia to create positive social change and impact,” he added.

[Photo: (L-R) SMU Professor Howard Thomas; SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer; Mr Ari Sarker, Co-President, Asia Pacific, MasterCard; Mr Matthew Driver, Group Executive, GPS Region Lead – Asia Pacific, MasterCard.]

Elaborating on the significance of the partnership, Ari Sarker, Co-President, Asia Pacific, MasterCard, commented, “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 Programme, 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.”

MasterCard and SMU also announced that a Board of Advisors has been established to provide the overall direction and guidance for the Programme.  One of the three members of this advisory board is Professor Howard Thomas, who is LKCSB Distinguished Term Professor of Strategic Management and Director of SMU’s Academic Strategy and Management Education Unit.

“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,” said Professor Thomas.

The other two members in the Board of Advisors are: 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.

The first MasterCard–SMU Forum on social inclusion and economic value creation is expected to be held in the middle of 2016.

[Featured photo: (L-R) SMU President, Professor Arnoud De Meyer, and MasterCard Co-President, Asia Pacific, Ari Sarker, officiating the MasterCard-SMU partnership.]