FOREWORD
Huib-Jan de Ruijter Chief Investment Officer
“Few things are more energizing than coming together with partners and peers who are shaping the future of finance. I can’t wait to welcome you in Rotterdam.”
In 2023, we chose the theme Waves of Change for our biennial Future of Finance conference, a reflection of the turbulence financial institutions were navigating at the time. The world felt unsteady, and the sector was steering through unpredictable currents. Little did we know then just how much more volatile the waters would become.
Today, uncertainty is no longer a passing phase. It is the backdrop to everything we do. But uncertainty doesn’t mean passivity. It calls for intention. That’s why this year, we’re not just riding the waves, we are choosing to Turn the Tide, the theme of the 7th edition of our flagship conference Future of Finance.
"In this edition of our digital magazine Future-minded, keynote speaker Professor Eldar Shafir highlights a critical but often overlooked reality: for entrepreneurs and households living with financial scarcity, staying at the helm—steering with focus and direction—is especially challenging. ”Scarcity doesn’t just limit resources,” he explains in his interview. “It consumes mental bandwidth. When banks and financial institutions recognize how this shapes behavior, they can design services that help vulnerable clients regain control and build financial health.“
That kind of thinking also drove FIDO’s success in transforming how they make credit decisions, which FIDO’s CEO Alon Eitan tells us all about it in his interview. For FIDO, creditworthiness isn’t just about how much money someone has in the bank, it’s about how they behave. By using alternative data, AI, and a mobile-first design, FIDO helps to close the financing gap for underserved entrepreneurs.
Charting your own course is also what we see in Ecuador, where Banco Bolivariano successfully launched a pioneering Blue Bond. However, as Francisco Arrata Puente —Banco Bolivariano’s Financial International Relations Coordinator— highlights in the interview, for such initiatives to thrive, Ecuador will need to strengthen its enabling environment.
Creating that environment is what Invest for Impact Nepal has successfully been working toward over the past five years, with support from FMO, BII and the Swiss Development Agency. There are valuable lessons to be learned from this market creation initiative for others who are aiming to foster investable ecosystems through collaboration.
These are just a few of the stories that will feature at this year’s Future of Finance—and there’s much more to discover, all aimed at making you reflect, reimagine, and act on the key topics we’re all grappling with in these rocky waters.
This will be my 6th Future of Finance, and I’m truly looking forward to meeting you in person again at our event location, De Doelen, in Rotterdam. Let’s start turning the tide—together.
See you there in September!
Huib-Jan de Ruijter
CIO FMO
For a glimpse into the energy and insights of the previous edition of Future of Finance, watch our wrap-up video of the event.
Colophon
A future we can foresee is a future we can create together. Future-minded magazine highlights the changemakers driving action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We feature ambitious entrepreneurs building sustainable businesses in emerging economies and the enablers—people, partnerships, and ecosystems—accelerating solutions for a better world.
Editors and contributors
Josh Asmah, Monica Beek, Tom Collingridge, Vicky Hampton, Anne-Rieke Oskamp
Creation & design
Photography & video
We would like to thank our clients and partners for sharing their photos with us : Fido, Banco Bolivariano, IIN Nepal and NMB Bank, other photography: Opmeer Reports
Publication date: July 2025
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to cse@fmo.nl. Please note, this email address is not intended for acquisition purposes.
Sign up for our Future-minded, our digital magazine here.