Helping the unbanked and small-scale entrepreneurs gain access to finance is definitely an area where financial institutions can play a role in the philanthropic world, according to the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.
"Financial institutions have an incredibly critical role to play in terms of social business … and the role of financial institutions is clearly around access to finance," Alison Eskesen, the centre's Asia Pacific regional director, told Asia Focus.
Mastercard conducts and supports academic research on strategic philanthropic investments because financial inclusion is critical to growth, said Ms Eskesen. However, there are nearly 2 billion people who are still unbanked, according to the World Bank.
"Access to financial services can serve as a bridge out of poverty. We have set a hugely ambitious goal -- universal financial access by 2020 -- and now we have evidence that we're making major progress," World Bank president Jim Yong Kim said in 2015, noting that the number of adults without a basic account had dropped by 500 million between 2011 and 2014.
"This effort will require many partners -- credit card companies, banks, microcredit institutions, the United Nations, foundations, and community leaders."
Mastercard is helping the World Bank by committing to get 500 million people financially included by 2020. The company has invested in 750 programmes in 80 countries and as of May 2017, had connected around 310 million people to formal financial services via prepaid cards, debit cards and mobile money accounts.
Mobile money accounts have become a major force in Sub-Saharan Africa. While only 1% of adults globally say they use a mobile money account and nothing else, in Sub-Saharan Africa 12% of adults (64 million people) have mobile money accounts; 45% of them have only a mobile money account.
For entrepreneurs, the card provider is seeking to connect 40 million micro and small merchants to its payment network. In Asia, the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth has been working with Mercy Corps' "Kompanion Myanmar", a microfinance institution, to deliver holistic services to small business, with a special emphasis on women and youth.
The two groups also work together in Indonesia, seeking to increase access to the products and services of formal financial institutions and other resource providers, and to link entrepreneurs to community business organisations to enhance their market access.
The company also supports women's access to finance because most of the people excluded from formal financial services are women. According to the World Bank, 58% of women have bank accounts compared to 65% of men. Meanwhile, more than half of all adults in the poorest 40% of households in developing countries were still without accounts in 2014.
"Too many entrepreneurs, many of them women, remain disconnected from the networks and resources they need to thrive in today's economy, like financial services," said Shamina Singh, president of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.
The problem with access to finance actually comes down to risk appetite and the main question is, "do financial institutions have the risk appetite to move down the market?" Ms Eskesen said.
The absence of reliable data deters some lenders. Mastercard, thorough the Start Path global incubator, is working with startups to acquire more data from different groups, including small businesses that may not have good bookkeeping. It is also working on alternative credit scoring and risk assessment for financial institutions in lieu of immovable collateral such land and houses.
The company also uses humanitarian projects to improve financial access for needy groups.
For example, the Mastercard Aid Network since 2015 has distributed aid cards to more than 100,000 people through the International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Save the Children and World Vision.
The cards help NGOs and donors track and report aid transfers, and give beneficiaries control and choice, reducing the inefficiencies and expenses of humanitarian aid.
"Financial inclusion is in the DNA of the company and we fundamentally believe that every single Mastercard staff member needs to think about how to bring the unbanked into the formal economy," said Ms Eskesen. "The easy entry point is often cards such as prepaid and debit cards, but we also look into things that are more unique and this is where the Mastercard Aid Network fits in."