Beyond Access: The next infrastructure for financial inclusion in emerging economies on Briter (formerly Briter Bridges)

For two decades, financial inclusion was measured by access: accounts opened, wallets activated, customers reached. Global account ownership has risen from 51% of adults in 2011 to 79% in 2025, according to the World Bank’s Global Findex, yet about 1.3 billion adults still have no account, and many existing accounts are rarely used. This report looks at what comes next: financial services that are affordable, useful and built on infrastructure, intelligence and trust.

Written by Briter with Accion Ventures following the Fintech for Inclusion Global Summit in London, the report draws on Briter Intelligence data to map the fintech companies building this next layer across Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

What the report covers:

Payment rails, APIs and open finance, and the applications being built on top of them
How banks, telcos and fintechs are building financial infrastructure together
AI in emerging-market fintech, from alternative-data credit scoring to compliance automation
MSME finance, including supply-chain finance, invoice finance and agri-value-chain lending
Fintech funding trends and why capital is becoming more selective
Cross-border payments, remittances and stablecoin settlement
Why trust must be designed into financial infrastructure from the start