Certified Expert in Digital Finance

You will learn about the development of finance in history, major technological trends and stakeholders in the ecosystem. The unit also covers critical success factors for DFS to tap their full potential for financial inclusion. The unit is rounded up by sharing key trends and service domains of digital finance.

The unit is designed to introduce you to the main new technologies that create a significant impact. From blockchain over biometrics to artificial intelligence, you will learn about the concepts and functionality of those technologies. You will learn how these technologies are being used to provide services, how they work and where the opportunities and challenges are.

They can occur through various channels, such as debit cards, ATMs or the internet. Yet, the mobile phone presents the greatest opportunity to reach the unbanked population. Mobile payments, mobile money and agent banking models are reaching millions of unbanked people, providing them with tools to grow their business with financial services.

To reach sustainable financial inclusion, other fields of financial demand need to be covered, too. The missing access to lending solutions is limiting MSMEs in their ability to run and grow their business properly. New financial service providers not only reinvent the distribution channel for lending services, but  they also reinvent loan scoring and credit analysis.

Another field of demand is digital savings and investing. Without access to those services, it is impossible for the unbanked to manage savings for retirement or unexpected expenses. Here DFS providers reinvent how insurance services for particular problems can be designed in order to provide a useful digital product solution. Last but not least, the technology impact is significant for the investment management industry. Investment solutions become digital, more effective and less costly.

Unit 4 will introduce you to each business field and explain how new providers and technologies reinvent financial services in this new ecosystem.

This unit will share the key principles of regulation and supervision and emphasise their application in various examples. Course participants gain not only a profound understanding of key principles but also learn how to apply them accordingly, including the use of Regtech and regulatory sandbox approaches.

This unit covers the key principles of risk management in digital finance which includes an overview of risks and how they can be managed effectively. Corporate governance as well as cybersecurity and new technology risks will enable participants to identify and manage different and new risks effectively.

Unit 7A: Strategic Management of Digital Financial Services

The financial inclusion landscape is changing rapidly, with new technologies, players and business models emerging at an incredible pace. Traditional players, like microfinance institutions, can no longer afford to watch and wait. They have to leverage into the future and select the right digitization strategy in order to increase their client outreach and deliver a wide range of financial services via new channels.

The unit takes you through the process of selecting and implementing the right strategy to go digital, from product development and technology selection through to applying the right distribution and marketing strategy. You will also learn about the risks related to digital financial services and how to address them adequately.

Unit 7B: Customer-Centric Product Design: Build your own Product

The emergence of digital financial services has provided access to millions of hitherto unbanked customers. Yet, usage of these new products often remains low, due to one-size-fits-all solutions that customers struggle to understand and use. In order for DFS to tap the full potential for financial inclusion, products need to be customer-centric. Providers need to develop a deep understanding of their client’s needs, preferences and behavior and build products based on that notion.

This unit will facilitate that process. You will learn how to design digital financial services and be able to offer solutions that meet the actual needs of your target clients. The unit takes you through a systematic development process from generating customer insights to designing and implementing customer-centric digital products and services

Benefit from an Alumni discount and have the course credited when you continue to the Master of Leadership in Sustainable Finance.

Benefit from an Alumni discount and have the course credited when you continue to the Diploma in Financial Inclusion.

Benefit from an Alumni discount and have the course credited when you continue to the Diploma in Green Finance.

Benefit from an Alumni discount and have the course credited when you continue to the Diploma in Risk Management.