Objective and Purpose of the Assignment
Women and women-owned businesses still face barriers to access finance to grow their entrepreneurial
activities as many financial institutions (FIs) do not provide suitable and affordable finance solutions
for this clientele.
The corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic also reinforced the crucial importance of a digital
economy, i.e., to change business models into digital business models and to integrate digital channels
into how financial service providers or businesses engage with customers, and to become more resilient
to disasters in the future.
The assignment will support knowledge on the fintech landscape in three countries, cross border barriers
and other constraints for financial institutions to use technology more efficiently to increase their
lending to WMSMEs, It will also look at i)current regulations and trends; ii) changes in consumer
behaviour, demographics and access to innovation, including viewing it from a gender angle; and iii)
fintech solutions that can contribute to climate resilience of the financial sector, such as cloud
banking solutions. It is estimated that the research will focus on Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam
and be completed within 2022.
The expert will support ADB’s Private Sector Financial Institutions Division in the above by
participating in the fintech research initiative for three countries in order to achieve the following
objectives:
a. Producing fintech content for the WFX website and other supporting channels for the FI target segment.
b. The research should provide insights as to which country has an enabling environment and a financial
sector potentially benefitting from fintech solutions on their digitalization journey, including
identifying the common problem statement across the financial industry. The research should cover
external forces impacting operations such as current regulatory landscape and potential future changes
to regulations, current competitive landscape and potential barriers to entry, prevailing technology
trends and demographic assessment. The research should also cover three sub-segments of the fintech
industry in greater detail with focus on product evolution, go-to-market strategies and potential market
access with emphasis on gender and green financing.
c. The research should provide insights to the fintech team regarding the potential investment
opportunities in the listed countries.
Scope of Work
The expert will work closely with multiple stakeholders from the WFX team, the fintech investments team,
PSFI and other relevant departments in ADB, to conduct research for the fintech landscape in the
Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. The expert will be expected to conduct high level research/current
state assessment and prevalent trends regarding the regulatory, competitive and demographic landscape in
the aforementioned countries. The expert is also expected to conduct granular research on three relevant
sub sectors in the fintech space in one of the countries after aligning with WFX relevant stakeholders.
The expert should support the fintech expert on all project activities, including providing material for
the formulation of questionnaires and help conduct interviews. The research should also have a gender
and green financing lens and should reflect the impact of fintech technologies on gender inclusion and
environmental sustainability.
Detailed Tasks and/or Expected Output
Among others, specific tasks will be:
• Support the fintech expert in the research study by conducting background research and writing reports
and other pertinent outputs that would be reviewed by the fintech expert and can be used as the basis to
conduct interviews.
• Review literature and do stocktaking in above mentioned countries in relation to:
o Competitive landscape of fintechs (including women-owned or led);
o Current regulations, trends and barriers to entry;
o Changes in consumer behavior, demographics and access to innovation, including viewing;
o it from a gender angle;
o Fintech solutions that can contribute to climate resilience of the financial sector, such as cloud
banking solutions;
o Constraints of financial institutions to use fintech solutions;
• Support development of questionnaire for field level research (interviews);
• Provide data visualization on the above items, disaggregated by demographics, such as sex, when
applicable;
• Develop a brief inception report stating the proposed methodology and framework for the research work
to be undertaken;
• Conduct virtual meetings with relevant stakeholders to access necessary information for the timely
development of the research work;
• Support virtual consultations with stakeholders by preparing background and/or presentation materials,
to seek their feedback on the draft research work;
• Prepare draft research work under the guidance of the fintech expert, address comments from ADB and/or
other stakeholders and submit a final report with comments incorporated.
Minimum Qualification Requirements :
The consultant should fulfill the following criteria:
• Master’s degree in a relevant field (gender and development, economics, sociology, political science,
public administration, international development, business management, or another related field).
• Track record in producing high-quality research (qualitative and quantitative) outputs.
• Experience working with ADB or similar international organizations.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English.
• Preferable General Experience: 10 years, Specific Experience: 5 years.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English is required
• Strong interpersonal, and teamwork skills; able to deliver measurable outputs in a timely manner,
demonstrated client orientation; sensitized in working in a diverse and multicultural environment.
• Self-Starter with a high degree of drive/motivation to exceed KPIs.
• Should be comfortable communicating with team members remotely across different time zones
Minimum General Experience : 7 Years
Minimum Specific Experience (relevant to assignment) :5 Years