Alix Murphy

Senior Mobile Analyst at WorldRemit

London, England

@AlixinLondon | Linkedin Profile

Please tell us a little about your role at WorldRemit.

As senior mobile analyst, I help build and support our commercial relationships with telecoms operators around the world, particularly for our Mobile Money partnerships. Prior to joining WorldRemit I worked on Mobile Money and digital identity initiatives at the GSMA, the global telecoms industry association, advising mobile operators on new commercial opportunities. My background also helps provide context to our operations and marketing initiatives in many developing markets.

You had the opportunity to travel the world, in particular the Middle East, early on in your career. Can you provide an overview of the type of work you were doing and why this region is of particular interest to you?

I’ve always found the Middle East completely fascinating. I studied Middle Eastern history and politics at university, hoping one day to work in policy. After 9/11 there was such a myopic view of the region and I wanted to focus on its diversity, its warmth, and its long history of peaceful coexistence of cultures and beliefs. I lived in Jordan and Turkey, studied Arabic and Turkish, and had the incredible opportunity to travel around the region before the outbreak of the Arab Spring. Even at that time, migration and internal displacement were a huge issue as refugees were pouring over the borders from Iraq and up from North Africa. Seeing this was one of the main reasons I wanted to work in a capacity where I could help solve these challenges. After that I went on to work in Washington, DC, managing livelihoods development projects in the Middle East and Central Asia on behalf of international donors.

You mentioned you became frustrated with the lack of long term impacts to many of the solutions you saw implemented during this period. Why do you think this was the case? What was missing?

Many of the development projects we handled were part of the reconstruction efforts in areas affected by the military campaigns taking place in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The short-termism applied to a lot of the projects was very frustrating, and there was very little coordination between different organisations all trying to achieve similar aims. One of the toughest challenges was trying to stimulate employment in areas where conflict had destroyed local opportunities or driven the younger people away. It isn’t always possible, but one thing that’s stuck with me from this time is knowing that long-term change has to be driven by local communities and by finding ways to grow local businesses.

Do you believe FinTech products can help address many of the issues faced by refugees and migrants today?

Absolutely. FinTech is already doing a lot to solve the challenges faced by migrants which would have been more difficult to do without the innovations in technology. Products like prepaid debit cards and alternative credit scoring methods are incredibly important for people who move to a new country and don’t have immediate access to a bank account or existing credit history. There are now companies providing identity proofing and verification solutions which help to speed up application processes. In fact, many FinTech companies here in London were started by immigrants who experienced these difficulties first-hand and knew that better solutions could be found. Our founder, Ismail Ahmed, started WorldRemit after coming to London from Somaliland to study and becoming frustrated with the difficulties he experienced in trying to send money back home.

Addressing these challenges is a fundamental part of our business at WorldRemit. We recognise that our customers want to stay connected with their families back home and to continue supporting them financially, but because of the huge inefficiencies in the legacy money transfer systems they’ve been paying some of the highest fees in the industry. Until recently, the typical cost of sending money to sub-Saharan Africa was between 12%-20%. Today, technology is playing a huge role in reducing these costs by bringing services online, improving risk assessment and making it easier to send money anywhere without requiring cash.

And it’s technologies like Mobile Money, born out of the developing world, which are raising expectations of immediacy when it comes to money transfer internationally. People in the developing world are already accustomed to a completely mobile-centric and instant experience, so it’s an even greater imperative on us in the FinTech world in Europe to recognise and meet these expectations.

You noted the first time you saw a solution that truly impacted peoples’ lives was in Uganda. What was the product and how did it address the issue?

It was when I was working in Uganda on a project with farmers in the north that I saw something that was truly having a huge impact on people’s daily lives. Of course, I’m talking about Mobile Money, which didn’t come from the international NGO community but was in fact a commercial service offered by the mobile telco operators.

Instead of traveling for miles to a local market to sell their produce, the farmers I met in Uganda were using Mobile Money to negotiate with traders in other towns and lock in the best price on the spot. Agricultural prices in Uganda can fluctuate hugely by the hour, so getting the right price can really mean the difference between a season of profit or loss. With Mobile Money, they could receive money from the trader in just minutes, instead of the days that it would take normally.

Mobile Money is a service that lets people send and receive money, make purchases and pay bills directly from their mobile phone. In many ways it’s the ultimate FinTech product, providing the basis for a wide range of much-needed financial services to unbanked users. It’s already used actively by over 100 million people around the world, and there are 16 countries now with more Mobile Money accounts than bank accounts.

What has been your personal experience working throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa as a woman in the FinTech space? Does it differ region to region?

In every region you find great companies where both women and men are in the driving seat. That said, cultural differences still persist across all regions which can make it much harder for women in all spheres of life, not just the business sector. In almost every country in the world, women are less likely to have a bank account than men, even in countries where women’s share of employment is the same. From that perspective, FinTech can have huge impact on improving the financial lives of women by providing more private access to financial services and overcoming some of the barriers, such as lack of financial literacy.

WorldRemit is quite unique in the FinTech space due to its high percentage of female employees and executives. What is it about WorldRemit that makes it so different than most other companies in this regard?

WorldRemit is a very diverse place to work. Having a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives among employees means we can better understand and serve our own customers around the world. Our gender split is almost exactly 50:50, and our 200 or so staff represent over 30 nationalities. We also have what is surely one of the most diverse management teams in the tech start-up world. Our COO, CFO, CTO and VP of Marketing are all women, while our founder and CEO Ismail Ahmed is from Somaliland, surely a first in FinTech!

Who(m) do you believe has had the most influence with respect to influencing your own career?

My mum has always been a huge inspiration to me. She led an amazing career, traveling throughout Asia and Latin America, leading client relationships for a multinational corporate bank and becoming the first female executive in her division. She taught me the invaluable lesson that if the opportunity isn’t there, ask for it, because even that conversation might lead to exciting opportunities. Balancing work and family wasn’t such an easy option in her day – she took me on a business trip when I was just two weeks old – but she always found a way to stay balanced and inspired by her work.

Who do you consider to be strong women leaders in the banking / FinTech space?

For me, the most influential women in the sector are those who have inspired fundamental changes in the way we think and approach financial services for people who have traditionally been left out of the equation. Women like Daryl Collins, director of the groundbreaking “Portfolios of the Poor” research on how poor people around the world actively manage their finances, and Gina Harman, CEO of ACCION’s microfinance network in the US, have helped to dramatically shift attitudes towards the poor and unbanked as a legitimate and servable client group.

It’s this type of thought-leadership through research and data-driven approaches that has propelled the next wave of innovative financial services, including credit risk scoring for unbanked customers and micro-insurance products for farmers and others with risky incomes. In many cases, these women have also reminded us that there is a lot of best practice to be derived from the developing world.

What do you see as the 3 leading future trends for FinTech? How do you believe WorldRemit is positioned to address these?

Undoubtedly, the mobile phone is the most important development to take place in our lifetime for all business, not just FinTech and financial services. As low-cost smartphones become increasingly available across the developing world, we’re going to see huge uptake in new financial services delivered via apps, which provide a much greater capability to address issues of financial illiteracy. Likewise, investments in low-cost data connectivity will continue to bring more people online and spur local content development that is tailored to peoples’ needs. Already, Mobile Money is an incredible phenomenon that is growing and evolving rapidly throughout the developing world. It may not be much understood in Europe or North America, but it is a complete game-changer in developing countries, enabling hundreds of millions of people to have access to basic financial services for the first time. This is why WorldRemit is so focused on mobile-to-mobile remittances, teaming up with Mobile Money operators in different regions, because people now expect money transfer to be as simple as sending an instant message.

 

About WorldRemit:

WorldRemit is an online service that lets people send money to friends and family living abroad, using a computer, smartphone or tablet. It is a convenient, low-cost alternative to traditional money transfer companies that use high street agents and charge unreasonable fees. Money can be received as a bank deposit, cash pick-up, Mobile Money, or mobile airtime top-up. WorldRemit’s service is available to senders in 50 countries and offers transfers to more than 120 destinations across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas.