Ualá’s bold “tech-and-touch” strategy brought 2.7 million new customers – 1 out of 20 people in Argentina – into banking in less than four years (2017-21).

With a focus on China’s biggest internet companies, Alibaba and Tencent, the case study describes their respective histories, fintech subsidiaries and platform-based ecosystems.

The case focuses on blockchain (and distributed ledger technology or DLT) – a ‘hot’ area of fintech – and on R3 as a fintech consortium that includes some of the world’s largest banks, financial institutions and regulators. R3 started out as a family office in 2014 and evolved into a fintech company focused on the application of distributed ledger technology (DLT).

In this case study, we are analyzing how one of the biggest international telecommunications providers, Telenor, has used this weakness of financial institutions and has successfully launched the first mobile only bank in Serbia – Telenor Banka. The CEO of Telenor Banka is an INSEAD Alumni and is working with us on this case.