By Pamela Draper, President, DCPayments
The global financial system was built decades ago around a narrow customer profile. It tends to work well for people with a steady income, strong credit history, and access to established markets. But millions of others are quietly excluded.
Women, minorities, people with thin or damaged credit files, newcomers, and many SMBs still face higher barriers, higher costs, and fewer opportunities to build financial resilience.
But that doesn’t have to be the status quo. Technology in the form of digital banking, embedded finance, and modern payment infrastructure has created ways to serve all customers more effectively, reducing or eliminating these traditional gaps.
The question now is not whether better solutions are possible, but whether the industry is willing to prioritize these digital solutions as powerful equalizers.
The inclusion gap is measurable
Financial exclusion is not marginal, and it is not confined to any one country. Globally, 1.3 billion people remain unbanked or underbanked, skewing heavily toward lower-income households, communities of color, and people with disabilities who are forced to rely on costly banking alternatives like check-cashing outlets and payday lenders.
Women face distinct structural barriers. Globally and even in mature markets, more than 700 million women still do not have a financial account, and there is a significant gap in the number of women versus men who have a bank account—a gap that widens sharply in developing economies. Women entrepreneurs also encounter steeper hurdles in accessing business credit and are often approved for smaller loan amounts than male peers with similar profiles.
SMBs face an equally steep climb. Banks reject SMB credit applications at a rate five times higher than enterprise clients—and it may not be due to risk, as some FIs report they’re simply harder to score due to more ambiguous credit histories. They are also often subjected to higher borrowing costs. These significant financing gaps put SMBs in emerging and established markets at a disadvantage despite many of these businesses being the backbone of local economies.
Paying more for basic financial services like money orders, check cashing, and short-term loans that carry fees that steadily drain income. Without access to mainstream credit and banking services, people cannot build the credit history needed for mortgages, car loans, or small business financing.
Digital banking and payments are the equalizers
Digital banking and embedded finance infrastructure offer something traditional banking has not: the ability to meet people where they are without the gatekeeping of physical branches, minimum balance requirements, or rigid credit-score cutoffs. Digital banking and payments innovators built companies not on the old rules or playbook. They saw the need and addressable market to expand quality financial services to all.
For individuals historically left out of the system, this matters in concrete ways. There are new digital banking and payments tools like neobanks and earned wage access programs that allow people to save and build financial habits. These digital savings tools allow people with non-traditional or interrupted employment to save incrementally and build financial habits outside of systems that may have undervalued their contributions. Mobile payment platforms enable entrepreneurs to accept payments, invoice clients, and manage cash flow without needing a traditional merchant account or long-standing banking relationship.
Embedded finance extends this reach even further. When a gig worker can access earnings instantly via a feature in the app they already use, or when a small business owner can apply for a microloan through the same software they use to manage inventory, much of the friction that historically excluded them disappears. Consumers engaging with embedded financial products often report higher financial confidence and better savings behaviors, indicating that accessible design is not just convenient. It is transformational.
Inclusive digital payment infrastructure also gives underserved communities safer ways to get paid and spend. For individuals without bank accounts, digital wallets provide real-time access to funds, reduce the need to carry cash, eliminate banking deserts, and create a digital payment record that can become the foundation of a formal financial identity over time.
Exclusion costs everyone but inclusion is a growth strategy
Financial exclusion is not just a social issue—it is a missed commercial opportunity. When more people and businesses have access to digital banking and payment tools, transaction volumes increase, customer lifetime value grows, and new merchant relationships emerge. Economies benefit from entrepreneurship, job creation, and consumer spending power.
Customers who use multiple products from a financial institution, like digital payment tools and savings accounts, can have a high rate of lifetime value since they are open to cross-sell services. They’re also more likely to refer others—especially when participating in a bank loyalty program. Inclusive product design, by creating access for previously excluded customers, lays the groundwork for deeper, multi-product relationships.
SMBs represent a major commercial opportunity. When small businesses gain access to digital payment acceptance, integrated cash flow management, and working capital tools, they grow—and their growth generates upstream revenue opportunities for the platforms that enable them. Serving the SMB segment inclusively is not charity. It’s how you grow in the part of the market that drives much of the economy.
There is even a generational lens to providing inclusivity. Millennials and Gen Z are digitally native, more diverse than any prior generation, and expect financial services that are seamless, mobile-first, and aligned with their values. FIs that build inclusive digital payment infrastructure are not just serving today’s underserved markets; they are building the right foundation for the next generation of primary banking relationships.
Institutions that show up meaningfully for underserved communities also earn something money cannot easily buy: trust and loyalty.
Financial inclusivity is no longer optional
The financial system’s design problem is solvable. We already have the technology in the form of digital banking platforms, embedded finance infrastructure, mobile payment tools to build systems that work better for women and other excluded communities. What has been missing is the intentionality to deploy these tools in ways that prioritize inclusion from the outset.
That window is narrowing. Institutions and fintechs that recognize inclusion as a strategic imperative as opposed to a compliance checkbox or PR talking point will be the ones to capture the enormous economic value in underserved markets. Just as importantly, they will help close opportunity gaps that have constrained potential for far too long.
Financial inclusivity should not be a future feature on a roadmap. It should be the foundation for the next generation of banking and payment infrastructure—designed from the ground up, for everyone.
