Trust, Tech and Transformation at the Mastercard Global Inclusive Growth Summit
These are truly dizzying times, but if there was a single takeaway from the Global Inclusive Growth Summit held last month in Washington, D.C., it was this: The world can't afford to heed the standard advice for vertigo — sit down, lie still.
In fact, uncertainty can be an opportunity for action, said Shamina Singh, the president and founder of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, which organizes the annual summit. 'That's what is needed now more than ever,' she said. 'New ways of thinking, new ways of doing, new partnerships that are purpose-built for the world as it is right now, but also how it will be tomorrow.'
Among the challenges raised by the policymakers, philanthropists, futurists, NGO leaders and others in the packed auditorium: How do we drive economic growth so people everywhere can reach financial health? How do we foster digital transformation without leaving small businesses vulnerable to growing cyber threats? What kind of leadership is needed in times of change?
'We have to anticipate now that those once-in-a-decade events are every year,' said Henry Timms, CEO of the global consultancy Brunswick Group. 'Leadership during uncertain times requires balancing immediate challenges with long-term vision.'
Here are three key insights from the summit:
01It takes a village to build financial health.
You can't measure someone's financial health by the balance in their bank account or their annual salary, said Haley Sacks, the financial influencer known as Mrs. Dow Jones, in a conversation with Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, the U.N. secretary-general's special advocate for financial health. 'Having a gym membership doesn't mean you're going to have a six-pack,' Sacks said.
Queen Máxima called on financial institutions to listen more carefully to their customers and their needs, and to develop and test tools that people will use to grow financially – and therefore grow as customers too. Employers can also play a greater role in supporting financial health, she said, with initiatives like automatic savings that can provide a buffer for emergencies, improving employees' peace of mind and productivity.
As digitization makes deeper inroads across sectors, organizations can work together to create more comprehensive financial services. 'I think you do not see people emerge securely into the middle class until they have an entire toolbox, not one tool like insurance,' said Andy Kuper, CEO of LeapFrog Investments, during a panel on impact investing. 'So I'm hopeful that if we as a world — and that especially requires investors to be smart — back the right kinds of companies, that you will see many billions of people with this toolbox.'
Despite the current economic turbulence, the middle class continues to grow globally, with already half of the global population in that income group, and projections indicating more than a billion people will join it in the coming decade, primarily in Asia, said Wolfgang Fengler, CEO of World Data Lab, in a session on the new global consumer with Michelle Meyer, chief economist of the Mastercard Economics Institute.
'Don't bet against digital,' Fengler said, 'and don't bet against the middle class.'
02Trust is the currency underpinning economic growth in the digital world.
'I am optimistic that cybersecurity is table stakes — it's increasingly understood that it is the starting point to an inclusive world,' said Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach.
Yet the gap between those with strong cyber defenses and those without is widening at a time when technology has enabled more sophisticated and convincing scams, attack vectors are expanding, and trust in digital spaces is breaking down.
Rebuilding trust starts at the individual level: 'We need to reclaim control of personal data, which is essential to one's identity and personhood,' said Frank McCourt, executive chairman of McCourt Global and founder of Project Liberty. He called for 'an intention economy over an attention economy, where individuals benefit economically from their data.'
At the systemic level, cyber threats should be viewed as a business and leadership issue, rather than merely a technical one. 'They are a central risk to global economies, to critical infrastructure and to public trust,' said Alissa 'Dr. Jay' Abdullah, Mastercard's deputy chief information security officer.
Public-private cooperation is critical, Miebach said, from cyber training and capacity building to real-time information sharing. 'There's a fragmentation of the world that we're currently witnessing, where people look more inside, and this [gets] in the way of sharing effectively,' he said. 'The way to defending is by sharing, being close.'
Criminal organizations don't recognize borders, said Valdecy Urquiza, secretary general of INTERPOL. 'The threats are coming from everywhere … We have got to foster collaboration — cross-border collaboration, cross-sector collaboration — we've got to make sure that everyone is included.'
03Invest in closing the digital divide, wherever it exists.
Whether it's Alabama or Angola, Montana or Malawi, rural innovation requires addressing fundamental infrastructure needs such as broadband access while also developing skills-based education programs that connect people to higher-paying jobs.
Connectivity is one area of critical concern worldwide – as Amy Doherty, chief information officer at the World Bank half-joked, 'I love the new Maslow's hierarchy of needs that has Wi-Fi at the bottom.'
In the U.S., that requires more coordination between local, state and federal governments, and with the private sector. 'If you don't have access to high-speed internet, you simply can't compete,' said Ross DeVol, CEO of think tank Heartland Forward. 'It is the number one economic challenge for many of these rural locations.'
Julie Gehrki, president of the Walmart Foundation, said employers should work closely with states to close the skills gap — making sure community college classes address the changing needs of the job market. 'If you're investing in a company in rural America that's now going to need people with tech skills, how are you making sure they know the demand there, they know the training program that's relevant, and that they can sign up to be a part of that transformation?'
Another key focus area is Africa, which is on the cusp of becoming a bigger global economic player thanks to its modern technology adoption, a young digital-native population, and creative industries. With more investment in the electricity infrastructure of sub-Saharan Africa, AI could even help emerging economies leapfrog developed ones, Doherty said. Take agriculture — agribusiness could use AI to give tailored advice to farmers about their land and help them increase crop yields, which in turn helps their community thrive, she said.
At the close of the day, Jon Huntsman, Mastercard's president of Strategic Growth, spoke with James Mwangi, chief executive of African financial services company Equity Group Holdings, which is part of the MADE Alliance, launched by Mastercard and the African Development Bank to extend digital access to critical services to 100 million people and businesses in Africa.
'A transformed Africa is a sustainable world,' Mwangi said. 'Africa is not coming out on this stage as a beggar. It's coming with this human resource to serve the world. It's coming with its agricultural potential to secure.'
Banner photo, Mastercard Economics Institute Chief Economist Michelle Meyer, left, discusses consumer spending habits and the resilience of the middle class with Wolfgang Fengler, right, CEO of the World Data Lab.
Originally published by Mastercard. Learn more about the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth by following us on LinkedIn and Instagram.
See content from the Summit: https://globalinclusivegrowthsummit.com/.
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Time Magazine
27 minutes ago
- Time Magazine
The Rise of Green Wall Street
The Great Hall in the City of London's Guildhall might seem like an odd place to anchor a climate summit. At a time when leading climate thinkers are increasingly calling for systemic change, it screams tradition. Built in 1411, the medieval auditorium is a homage to age-old British institutions and customs with stained glass windows honoring lord mayors and monarchs. The dissonance is only amplified by its surroundings: a square mile housing the world's leading financial institutions, gleaming towers of banks and investment firms with proprietors historically far more focused on adding up their financial returns than on calculating progress toward net-zero emissions. And yet Guildhall—and the City, as the financial district is known—were the center of the action in June when 45,000 climate advocates from around the world descended on London for its annual 'Climate Action Week.' To participate, attendees hopped between meetings at Guildhall, the London Stock Exchange, and the myriad banks, insurers, and other financial institutions found in the area. The location was no coincidence. To tackle climate change will require moving immense sums of money—and the institutions located in the City of London have money to lend and invest. But the decision wasn't entirely, or even primarily, altruistic. Positioning London as the key node in the world of sustainable finance could pay off big as the sector continues to grow. A boom in jobs and wealth will be bestowed wherever banks and financial institutions focused on this issue set up shop. Estimates on the size of the opportunity vary depending on methodology, but most research suggests that by the 2030s the value of sustainable finance will reach double-digit trillions. 'What we've got here is an economic growth story of the 21st century,' says Alok Sharma, the former British Cabinet minister who served as president of the 2021 U.N. climate conference in Glasgow. 'This isn't just about climate.' Sharma, whose soft-spoken disposition belies his convening power in the climate space, is now charged with the important task of wrangling the financial sector, government, and industry to chart a path forward for the country as the chair of the Transition Finance Council. The council, launched by the British government and the City of London, is working through how to leverage the city's deep capital markets and history of financial innovation to make the city—and the country—the world's green-finance leader. 'We have a financial ecosystem in London which very few markets can actually rival,' he notes. London has succeeded in taking pole position, but it's far from the only place that's caught on. Across the globe, financial hubs—largely in Europe and Asia—have launched efforts to attract the growing sustainable-finance industry. Leaning into their global connections and deep capital markets, Abu Dhabi and Singapore have emerged as leading contenders giving London a run for its money. In many ways, the effort in these three cities—and around the world—is collaborative. Growth in the sector will lift all boats. But it's also fiercely competitive. The city—or cities—that win will not only bring jobs and wealth but also give victors outsize influence shaping the future of both the global financial system and the fight against climate change. Walking through the City of London today can feel a bit like tracing the history of global finance. The modern Bank of England, a cornerstone of the country's financial might, sits only a short stroll from its original 1694 location. The age-old cemeteries sprinkled between today's glass office buildings serve as the final resting place for some of London's original financiers. And, in some cases, even the odd-sounding street names tie back to the city's financial roots: Lombard Street, named for the Italian region known for its bankers and merchants, or Ironmonger Lane, which once housed the metal-trading houses. At its core, London's sustainable-finance opportunity is part and parcel with this history. In today's parlance, innovation tends to refer to technological innovation, but many of the biggest breakthroughs to emerge from London over the centuries were financial—from the launch of the world's first joint-stock companies in the 16th century, which pioneered risk sharing among investors and created some of the world's first tradable securities, to pioneering of the modern insurance market in the 17th century by Lloyd's of London. In short, over some 500 years, British financiers built the foundations of today's global financial system. Now, these foundations need some climate-minded reinvention—and at lightning speed. The International Energy Agency estimates that investment in clean energy must reach $4.5 trillion annually in the 2030s to meet climate goals. To get that money to the Global South, where it is most needed, will require new financial structures that make investing less risky. In some corners of the globe, most importantly the U.S., the push to tweak the rules of the road has been met with soft denial. The federal government has halted efforts to think through the financial disclosure of climate risk and exited cooperative efforts with other countries aimed at greening the financial system. In London, leaders in both government and in the private sector are jumping on the opportunity. 'Britain is open for business,' says Sharma. 'We are a very established market, but you can't sort of sit there and rest on your laurels.' Even for a close watcher of the climate-finance space, it can be difficult to keep track of everything coming out of London. Under both of the country's major parties in recent years, the British government has launched a flurry of efforts to help its financial-services industry lead the global sustainable-finance movement. The Financial Conduct Authority has worked on greenwashing regulations and the standards for applying a sustainable label to products. The Green Finance Institute was created in 2019 to coordinate public-private efforts. In 2021, the Treasury launched green-bonds sales to demonstrate government commitment to the sector. And, last year, the current government created a national wealth fund to invest in a range of low-carbon technologies—attracting private finance in the process. Since launching earlier this year, Sharma's Transition Finance Council has quickly become an essential node. The group focuses specifically on transition finance, the branch of sustainable finance where money is invested not only to build clean technologies but also to decarbonize big sources of emissions. Think of lending to an oil company to fix leaks in its pipes to stop methane from seeping out, or putting up the money for a steel producer to convert to a less emissions-intensive process. In other mainstream approaches, green technology or ESG-related investing that tries to identify and protect against environmental risks is prioritized. In -transition finance, you can run to the problem and spend money trying to fix it—even if that means financing a dirty industry for a short while. In some jurisdictions, transition finance is a thorny subject because it means dealing with polluting industries. But it's a big opportunity—both for the financial sector and the planet. The World Economic Forum estimates that transition finance for carbon-heavy sectors including aviation, shipping, and steel production represents a $13.5 trillion opportunity in the coming decades. These so-called hard-to-abate sectors make up 40% of global emissions today. The Transition Finance Council sounds wonky—and it is. The body of government officials, investors, and top executives in industry and finance was formed to work through the technicalities of key issues hand in hand with the private sector. One subcommittee tackles 'credibility and integrity,' another works on 'pathways, policies, and governance.' The Transition Finance Market Review report released last year ahead of the group's launch explores how firms navigate 'credible third-party standards' and 'carbon budget delivery plans.' Splashy public-facing marketing campaign this is not. And yet, this is the sort of work needed to give firms the confidence to set up their transition-finance shop in London. Vanessa Havard-Williams, who founded the ESG practice at global law firm Linklaters, led the report and described the work as an aggressive consultation effort across the public and private sectors and in countries around the world. The council is currently crafting 'credibility guidelines' at a firm level for transition finance with an eye to launching a global consultation process just ahead of this year's U.N. climate conference in Brazil, she says. Illustration by Kathleen Fu for TIME Despite all of this, many climate advocates have complained that much of the British regulatory regime is moving more slowly than across the Channel in the E.U. But that's part of the plan. Over the past decade, the E.U. laid out a suite of regulations that the financial industry has complained is too onerous. The U.K., which has the freedom to chart its own rules after officially leaving the E.U. in 2020, has tried to take advantage of that dynamic with less complex rule-making. 'I'm not a Brexiteer, but I do think Europe constrained our abilities,' says Chris Hayward, policy chairman of the City of London. 'On green finance, I think we're free to flex our wings.' The complicated history of colonialism offers another advantage. No matter the dark legacies, Britain walked away with relationships with emerging markets and developing countries. The London Stock Exchange hosts more international companies than any other major bourse, with a strong roster of listed firms from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. Commonwealth countries, the network of former colonies that still maintain a loose alliance, still use London as a primary listing venue for their largest companies, and British banks and asset managers have extensive operations across these markets. Not too long ago, London promoters might have said 'the sun doesn't set on the British Empire' to indicate the scope of British influence. Today, as Sharma puts it more delicately, 'we're in a very good time zone.' More than 3,000 miles away, Abu Dhabi has its own global network, forged through its position selling vast quantities of oil to the rest of the world. For that very reason, a cynical climate advocate might look at the city's push into sustainable finance with deep skepticism. Drive across the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and you'll see nonstop reminders that this is oil-and-gas country—from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company logo affixed on prominent skyscrapers to the network of fossil-fuel infrastructure just off the coastline. But also prominently fixed in the city's skyline are the sleek buildings that host the money managers overseeing more than $1 trillion in capital. The funds may have come from selling oil to the world, but leaders in the Emirates know that sooner or later they will need to diversify—and attracting sustainable finance is a key part of their agenda. From a corner office at Al Maryah Tower, in the heart of Abu Dhabi's posh international business district, Majid Al Suwaidi runs a $30 billion climate fund known as Alterra. Financed with money from the Emirati government, the fund is designed to make return-oriented investments that will have meaningful climate impact. Opportunities in the Global South receive particular attention. When it was announced in 2023, experts working at the intersection of finance and climate hailed its approach as unique. Alterra describes itself as a 'fund of funds,' meaning that it takes a broad strategic view while relying on other fund managers to do the on-the-ground investing. And, with its size and influential backing, Alterra works with other co-investors to scale up the impact. The goal is to use the UAE's contribution to mobilize a total of $250 billion. 'In a way, we achieved what we set out to do, which is to prove that there was an appetite and interest for people to invest in the Global South,' says Al Suwaidi. The UAE plans to earn a healthy return on its $30 billion investment, but the opportunity is really much bigger. Alterra is the center of an emerging business cluster, much like venture capital in Silicon Valley or the entertainment industry in Hollywood. By tapping into the business of financing climate infrastructure in the Global South early, the country is placing a down payment for capturing a much bigger opportunity. Emerging markets represent the largest source of emissions reduction or prevention. And that means, sooner or later, significant capital must flow to make it happen. 'The ecosystem is building here,' Al Suwaidi told me from his office, explaining that the Alterra fund has helped attract smaller climate-focused fund managers. Today, ADGM, short for Abu Dhabi Global Market, the city's financial free zone where regulation is based on English common law, counts more than 180 local funds and other institutions that say they are focused on sustainability. Indeed, ADGM, Abu Dhabi's Wall Street, has created an entire system to put wind in the sails of these efforts. The organization has crafted a comprehensive sustainable-finance regulatory framework that includes environmental standards for funds, portfolios, bonds, stocks, and other financial instruments linked to the environment. ESG disclosure standards are clear and simple. 'We've been busy,' says Lawrence Paramasivam, who oversees the sustainability work at the Financial Services Regulatory Authority at ADGM. Paramasivam describes the regulatory approach as 'part of a broader diversification strategy' for ADGM. The global reach and sway of the government in the UAE has helped open doors. The country is a bridge between north and south, east and west, with friendly relations with virtually every country. It follows that it can help navigate those financial flows too. It's hard to find an economic-growth story as revered as Singapore's. The country transformed from a low-income nation into a financial powerhouse in just a few generations, driven in large part by deliberate investments and a thoughtful approach to economic policymaking. Today, Singapore is placing a long-term bet on climate—and hoping that it can own the future of sustainable finance in Asia. 'The timeline is not set by business cycles. It is not set by the electoral cycles,' said Ravi Menon, Singapore's climate ambassador, at a June event in London. 'The planet's timeline will eventually impose its will on us.' And, when it does, Singapore wants to be prepared. To fully understand Singapore's approach would require unpacking a dizzying array of programs, international partnerships, and regulatory structures. Through the Singapore-Asia Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance, the country created a framework to rate investments on their sustainability characteristics. Critically, the program was developed with all of Asia in mind, helping advance the country's position at the middle of the region's flow of sustainable finance. And the government ponied up $500 million as the public-sector contribution to a finance initiative that combines public and private money to invest in climate projects in the region. That effort has attracted other funds, including from the private sector, says Menon. A key asset for Singapore is Temasek, the country's $300 billion state-owned investment fund. The fund's charter includes a mandate to protect the planet, but just as important is the fund's goal of providing long-term returns for generations to come. 'If I'm going to hold assets for the long term, then I've got to think about what it means to be in a climate-challenged position,' said Dilhan Pillay-Sandrasegara, the CEO of Temasek, at a World Economic Forum event in January. 'And so that's what motivates us to invest in things like sustainability-focused sectors or sustainable solutions.' One essential area of interest for Temasek has been carbon-credit companies. Today, carbon credits remain complicated and controversial. And yet most experts deep in the weeds of climate policy and finance see their growth as an inevitability because they provide one of the most effective ways to finance emissions reduction and can easily channel money from the Global North to the Global South. Temasek's investments in carbon-credit companies, combined with government policy to facilitate it, have proved critical in turning Singapore into a carbon-credit hub—certainly the most important in the region and perhaps the world. Today, the country is home to more than 100 carbon-trading firms and a robust regulatory framework for how companies can use credits. In the spring of 2023, as the UAE was in the midst of developing Alterra and Singapore was crafting its taxonomy for Asia, the U.S. was immersed in a fight over whether fund managers can legally take climate change into account in their decisionmaking. Then and now, the mainstream U.S. conversation at the intersection of climate and finance is vastly different from the same conversations happening around the world. As other countries innovate, the U.S. government is at best caught in a defensive posture and at worst pulling back. During the Biden years, the Federal Reserve dipped its toes into the Network for Greening the Financial System before promptly pulling out after Donald Trump's election, and the U.S. federal government has abandoned any efforts to craft financial-disclosure rules around climate. To be clear, big U.S. financial firms with operations outside the U.S. will need to comply with this growing segment of climate regulation; the rules will just be drafted somewhere else. It may not worry Wall Street just yet. While cities like London and Singapore have developed global finance hubs, today there's no question that the U.S. is the epicenter. The country has the deepest capital markets and the world's reserve currency. It houses the biggest and most influential global financial firms. And, yet, as sustainable finance grows, its influence has the potential to eat away at the U.S. position. That road will be long and windy as every place faces its own unique challenges. In the U.K., politicians need to explain to voters why the government is spending so much time on sustainable finance in the midst of other challenges. Indeed, some efforts to bolster sustainable finance have stalled or been dropped entirely, presumably with those political questions in mind. In Abu Dhabi, leaders must confront the skepticism in many corners about the ability of a big oil-producing country to deliver on climate. And Singapore faces the consistent challenge that comes from existing in the shadow of China—which also has designs on developing a sustainable-finance sector. Those questions will eventually be resolved, and a new paradigm will emerge. The winners won't just capture economic opportunity; they will help determine whether the world has the financial infrastructure to avoid the worst effects of climate change. This story is supported by a partnership with Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. TIME is solely responsible for the content .
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Woman from Gaza evacuated to Italy in a 'state of severe physical deterioration' dies in hospital
MADRID (AP) — A 20-year old Palestinian woman described as being in a 'state of severe physical deterioration' has died after being transferred to Italy for treatment, the hospital said Saturday. The patient was admitted to Pisa University Hospital late Wednesday and died on Friday. She was removed from the Gaza Strip as part of a humanitarian mission and arrived with a 'with a very complex, compromised clinical picture,' according to the hospital. She died after entering a respiratory crisis and subsequently going into cardiac arrest, it said in a statement. Hospital staff had performed tests and started supportive therapy before she died, the statement said. The woman, named by Italian media as Marah Abu Zuhri, had arrived in Italy with her mother. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said almost 120 Palestinians — 31 patients and their families — had been flown to Rome, Milan and Pisa on three planes. In a post on X, Tajani said that it was the 14th medical evacuation of Palestinians that Italy had conducted since January 2024, and the largest. The hospital did not specify whether the woman had suffered from malnutrition, but said that she had arrived in a 'state of severe physical deterioration.' Eugenio Giani, leader of the Tuscan region, expressed his condolences Saturday for the woman's death. Earlier in the week, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that starvation and malnutrition in Gaza were at their highest levels since the Israel-Hamas war began. The U.N. says nearly 12,000 children under 5 were found to have acute malnutrition in July — including more than 2,500 with severe malnutrition, the most dangerous level. The World Health Organization says the numbers are likely an undercount. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month no one in Gaza is starving. 'There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza," he said. U.S. President Donald Trump responded to Netanyahu's claim by noting the images emerging of emaciated people. 'I don't know,' Trump said when asked if he agreed with the Israeli leader's comment. 'I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.' Over the past two weeks, Israel has allowed around triple the amount of food into Gaza than what had been entering since late May. That was after two and a half months when Israel barred all food, medicine and other supplies, saying it was to pressure Hamas to release hostages taken during its October 2023 attack that launched the war. Solve the daily Crossword
a day ago
Woman from Gaza evacuated to Italy in a 'state of severe physical deterioration' dies in hospital
MADRID -- A 20-year old Palestinian woman described as being in a 'state of severe physical deterioration' has died after being transferred to Italy for treatment, the hospital said Saturday. The patient was admitted to Pisa University Hospital late Wednesday and died on Friday. She was removed from the Gaza Strip as part of a humanitarian mission and arrived with a 'with a very complex, compromised clinical picture,' according to the hospital. She died after entering a respiratory crisis and subsequently going into cardiac arrest, it said in a statement. Hospital staff had performed tests and started supportive therapy before she died, the statement said. The woman, named by Italian media as Marah Abu Zuhri, had arrived in Italy with her mother. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said almost 120 Palestinians — 31 patients and their families — had been flown to Rome, Milan and Pisa on three planes. In a post on X, Tajani said that it was the 14th medical evacuation of Palestinians that Italy had conducted since January 2024, and the largest. The hospital did not specify whether the woman had suffered from malnutrition, but said that she had arrived in a 'state of severe physical deterioration.' Eugenio Giani, leader of the Tuscan region, expressed his condolences Saturday for the woman's death. Earlier in the week, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that starvation and malnutrition in Gaza were at their highest levels since the Israel-Hamas war began. The U.N. says nearly 12,000 children under 5 were found to have acute malnutrition in July — including more than 2,500 with severe malnutrition, the most dangerous level. The World Health Organization says the numbers are likely an undercount. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month no one in Gaza is starving. 'There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza," he said. U.S. President Donald Trump responded to Netanyahu's claim by noting the images emerging of emaciated people. 'I don't know,' Trump said when asked if he agreed with the Israeli leader's comment. 'I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.' Over the past two weeks, Israel has allowed around triple the amount of food into Gaza than what had been entering since late May. That was after two and a half months when Israel barred all food, medicine and other supplies, saying it was to pressure Hamas to release hostages taken during its October 2023 attack that launched the war.
