For Mastercard, financial inclusion isn’t just an altruistic imperative; its core to business strategy. The more people who have access to economic opportunity, the better for them, the world, and for Mastercard.

We examined communities being excluded from the financial system and ideated creative ways to deploy our core capabilities, network and partnerships to break down the barriers.

Though Mastercard had innovative solutions, we needed our B2B partners to buy in and bring our solutions to market. Mastercard doesn’t sell solutions directly to consumers—their B2B partners do. Without them on board, our ideas would remain simply innovative prototypes instead of real solutions that real consumers could use.

Rather than viewing this as an obstacle, we saw it as an opportunity to deepen relationships with our B2B partners by working together and sharing the credit.

Our creative work always had two components:

1. Mastercard innovation solution aimed at solving a financial barrier plaguing a marginalized community.

2. Creative communications to spark awareness, support, consideration, and buy-in from B2B partners.

To understand where we were most needed, we used quantitative and qualitative research to connect directly with marginalized communities and experts in accessibility from the LGBTQIA+ community, The Royal National Institute of Blind People, VISIONS/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Alzheimer’s Society, even Polish government agencies helping resettle Ukrainian refugees.

We uncovered structural issues riddling the financial system, barring these communities from thriving.

Issues like:

• Credit card security protocols currently forcing transgender and non-binary people to use their birth names against their will.

• Credit card design being impossible for partially-sighted people to distinguish by touch.

• Credit card bill management systems that were too complex for people with dementia and legal systems that prevented their loved ones from helping them.

• Inadequate and disconnected guidance for Ukrainian refugees on where to best rebuild new lives after being forced out of their home country.

Once we identified clear problems, we pulled together innovation teams, engaged regulators and business partners to bring these solutions to life.

We cut through red tape to create True Name for the transgender community - the first credit card people could use their chosen names.

We innovated on card design and the entire manufacturing and distribution process to bring to market the Touch Card for the partially-sighted, a card that used notches to allow anyone to tell their cards apart with a touch.

For dementia patients, we simplified a complex UX riddled with legal barriers. Sibstar was an app and card that let caregivers seamlessly put guardrails around their loved ones' spend.

And for Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russia-Ukraine war, we built “Where to Settle.” A revolutionary app that aggregated the power of Mastercard’s and the Polish Central Statistical office's anonymized data, to direct users on where they should migrate in Poland based on their personal conditions.

Each innovation transformed us in the market from being an engine of consumption to becoming an engine of inclusion powered by innovation.