Called the IFC DigiLab for Latin America and the Caribbean, it will look toward “helping businesses respond to new digital trends in the market, while leveraging the latest technologies with the dual goals of expanding their business and promoting financial inclusion.”

The initiative is yet to begin but will launch in the first half of the year, according to the institution.

The first program will kick off in partnership with Accenture and will focus on financial technology, including applications of analytics, big data, and cloud computing with an emphasis on mobile.

Through meetings, regional innovation submits, visits to similar labs, and collaboration through online platforms, the DigiLab will also also prioritize helping participants advance their overall digital banking strategy and understand the benefits of partnering with fintech firms.

Paulo de Bolle, global industry director for the global financial institutions group of the IFC, said that the goal is to “offer innovative, creative, and market-driven capacity-building projects” to help industry firms develop commercially viable projects that can serve “underbanked citizens in ways previously hard to imagine.”

(Photo credit: Addy Cameron-Huff)