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Defy® Consortium — Defiant for Good®
Turning financial access into agency and economic empowerment through safeguards, interoperability, and evidence-led scale.
Manifesto
"Access without agency entrenches fragility."
Financial inclusion should not stop at opening accounts. True progress is impossible when access is granted without agency, as this only entrenches fragility.
We choose a harder, better path: building trusted, interoperable financial architecture where underserved communities can fully participate in the digital economy — We are Defiant for Good®. /
What is Defy?
We are a neutral and independent industry alliance. We orchestrate a consortium of private organisations, international bodies, and NGOs to make inclusive finance the engine of measurable inclusion outcomes.
Our role is to convene stakeholders, co-design and codify national priorities, and nurture local inclusive finance ecosystems by leveraging our members’ unique capabilities and mission-aligned capital to drive meaningful change.
Our Vision
A trusted, interoperable financial architecture that turns access into agency for underserved communities.
Our Mission
To make financial inclusion possible in our lifetime by orchestrating socio-political, economic, and technological innovation, ensuring access becomes a right and inclusion becomes agency.
Agency Beyond Access
We measure tangible outcomes, not just the number of accounts opened.
Trust & Safety by Design
Safeguards and trust are our first priorities; scale is the second.
Open Standards & Shareability Bias
Interoperability is essential and always beats proprietary lock-in.
Co-creation as a Key Principle
We build with regulators, communities, and industry partners.
Why Become a Member?
We turn policy into product: from “can we?” to “it’s live” with evidence.
Our memberships
Shape the Agenda
  • Co‑design national priorities through policy clinics.
  • Chair one of our domain working groups.
Enhance Your Visibility
  • Co‑publish case studies and policy notes.
  • Speak at our roundtables and events.
Become a Change Maker
  • Offer solutions and services to the community.
  • Priority consideration for PPP pilots and standards work.
Theory of Change
Safeguards Before Scale
Financial inclusion hasn’t failed for lack of accounts—it’s failed for lack of agency. Too often, systems are fragmented, policies are patchy, and pilots die before they can scale due to vendor lock-in and misaligned incentives.
Defy’s theory of change directly addresses these failure points. We convene all relevant stakeholders to co-design national priorities and de-risk them through policy clinics and validated Public-Private Partnership pilots. By building capacity and codifying what works, we create a pathway to scale with mission-aligned capital.
Our approach aim at aligning public and private actors, run evidence-led pilots with robust safeguards, certify interoperability, and convert proven solutions into policy, standards, and investable scale plans.
From Theory to Practice
We translate bold ideas into tangible, tested solutions through our hands-on labs and factories.
DPPI Pilot Factory
We scope, charter, and govern Digital Public-Private Infrastructure (DPPI) with built-in safeguards and clear stage-gates to either scale or stop.
Inclusion UX Lab
Our lab facilitates rapid prototyping and testing directly with target users, including women, gig workers, and micro-retailers.
Interoperability Testbeds
We support sandboxed, vendor-neutral environments for testing essential infrastructure like digital ID, e-KYC, and payment rails.
Funding
Mission-aligned, blended capital to scale what works. Investments follow Evidence Packs, include safeguards covenants, and are tracked on the national impact dashboard—not one-off cheques.
Measuring What Matters
We measure agency, not just access. At the consortium level, our work is read and assessed through four master impact dimensions
Sustained usage — continuity of use, frequency, reliability
Protection & recourse — complaints handled well and fast, effective refunds, low fraud exposure
Empowerment & resilience — greater financial choice, stability through shocks, women’s economic voice
Inclusive growth — MSMEs thriving, jobs supported, value retained locally, inclusion across genders
Targets will be set later by the Steering Committee. Assessment will carried out by our independent Key Impact Indicator Board.
Inclusive Finance: The Next Fintech Frontier
Our first output — a thought-leadership anchor calling for inclusive finance to be recognised as a distinct vertical with its own safeguards, regulatory pathways, and ecosystem strategy.
Synopsis
Basic rails (payments, wallets, micro-credit, etc.) are widespread, yet inclusion still lags. Progress can’t be judged by access alone; agency, protection, and inclusion must define it. Value is shifting to ecosystem solutions where innovation and consumer protection move in lockstep. This means moving beyond transactions to infrastructure that gives people meaningful choice, robust safeguards, and fair participation in the digital economy. Success in this next frontier requires uncommon coordination between regulators, providers, and communities, with sustainable business models tied to verifiable gains in user agency and economic empowerment. Institutions that evolve from product-centric to ecosystem-centric value creation will capture the opportunity—and help drive the inclusive economic transformation that’s overdue.
Join Us — Be Defiant for Good®
Building inclusive finance ecosystems requires more than vision. It requires coordinated action from Governments, industry partners, Development Financial Institutions, Inclusive Finance Service Providers (IFSP), ecosystem builders and Non-Profit Organisations (NPO) to shape markets, enable innovation, and serve communities on the ground. Defy Consortium brings these actors together to co-design the next generation of inclusive finance solutions and national infrastructures.
By joining the Consortium, your organisation becomes part of a mission-driven alliance working to:
  • Develop national frameworks that accelerate financial inclusion
  • Design and test Digital Public-Private Infrastructure (DPPI)
  • Build pilot factories and regulatory-aligned innovation pathways
  • Strengthen community-based delivery networks
  • Shape standards, playbooks, and shared capabilities for the industry
Membership is open to institutions committed to advancing inclusive finance through collaboration, innovation, and evidence-based practice — including corporates, financial institutions, technology providers, development agencies, NGOs, and ecosystem builders.
Whether you join as a Steward Member contributing to strategy and governance, or as an Amplifier Member supporting programs and ecosystem engagement, you will be part of a coalition turning insights into measurable impact.
If your organisation is ready to help shape the future of inclusive finance, we welcome you to join us.
Together, we can move from access to impact and build financial systems that work for everyone.
Disclaimer
Defy Consortium ("Defy") is a private initiative of xcub-e pte. ltd. ("xcube). Regulators and government bodies are partners/beneficiaries and are not members of the alliance.
All materials on this site are for general information only; they do not constitute legal, regulatory, tax, or investment advice, and may change without notice. Nothing herein is an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a commitment to invest or provide services. Any future participation, membership, or funding is subject to separate, definitive agreements and approvals.
Defy is not a bank and does not itself provide regulated financial services. References to pilots, standards, certifications, or dashboards describe proposed frameworks and do not represent official approvals. Third-party names/logos are the property of their owners and their inclusion does not imply endorsement.
Materials include forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions; actual results may differ materially. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to the accuracy or completeness of the information. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Defy/xcube.co disclaim liability for any loss arising from reliance hereon..
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