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Can Financial Inclusion Exist Without Regulations?

2 Likes 19 August 2025 Be the first to comment

Daniel Tan 🔥

Founder

FindTheLoan.com

Access to credit is more than a financial service—it’s an engine for growth. It helps SMEs expand, create jobs, and fund innovation. But in Southeast Asia, where millions remain underbanked or underserved, “access” without transparency can quickly become exploitation.

From ex-head of bank doing fake reviews to misused “as featured as" we have seen them all.

Financial Inclusion Must Mean Dignity

Financial inclusion means everyone—regardless of income, social status, or location—has access to useful and affordable financial products such as payments, savings, credit, and insurance, and can use them safely and with dignity.

That dignity is impossible without transparency. If a borrower can’t see the true costs, compare real options, or trust the process, inclusion turns into another trap.

The Broken System

The US, UK, and Australia mandate licensing, conflict-of-interest disclosures, and client-first obligations for brokers. Most of Southeast Asia, however, offers no such protections. In Singapore, it takes nothing more than a claim—no training, no regulation—for someone to present themselves as a broker.

Even regulated markets aren’t immune. In 2024, United Wholesale Mortgage—the largest US mortgage lender—was sued for allegedly working with brokers to steer borrowers into more expensive loans, costing consumers $39 billion in excess fees.

If this happens where there are rules, imagine the risks where there are none.

What Impact-First Lending Should Look Like

Impact-first design means removing middlemen incentives that conflict with borrower interests. Instead of steering to one lender, an honest marketplace connects borrowers directly to multiple licensed lenders, each submitting real, binding offers—not just generic ‘as low as’ ads.

It also means designing safeguards from the ground up: auditable recommendations, strict data privacy, and refusing to follow pay structures that reward pushing higher-cost loans.

The Way Forward

SEA’s fintech sector prides itself on leapfrogging legacy models. But if we don’t address this transparency gap, we risk replicating the same systemic harm we claim to disrupt. Curbing unfair lending practices isn’t just consumer protection—it’s economic protection

For financial inclusion to be real, we need:

Licensing and ethical training for all loan brokers
Full disclosure of conflicts of interest
Enforcement against false claims and fake reviews
Documented recommendations like banker and financial advisors already do.

Inclusion without trust is a false promise. The next phase of fintech’s growth in SEA must be transparency-first—because when trust is designed in from the start, everyone wins.

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This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author.

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Financial Inclusion

The financial services industry has much to contribute to the UN and World Bank goal of full financial inclusion by 2020. This group will focus on industry contributions, ideas, barriers and enablers.

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149 opinions 24 members 27 August 2025

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Daniel Tan 🔥

Founder

FindTheLoan.com

Member since

15 Aug

Location

Singapore

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