Trust by Design Fintech Challenge

The Challenge will award one $50,000 Grand Prize and three $10,000 awards to finalists.

Now closed for applications. Thank you to everyone who applied!

Winners will be announced on September 2, 2026, at the Fintech for Inclusion Global Summit in London. Stay tuned for the announcement, along with key learnings and best practices from the Challenge.

Interested in learning more, collaborating, or sharing? Email us at trustbydesign@accion.org.

Challenge overview

The Trust by Design Fintech Challenge recognizes organizations designing fintech solutions that improve safety, transparency, and trust, especially for women who have traditionally been excluded from financial systems. The Challenge seeks market-tested solutions that demonstrate how data, customer-centric product design, and responsible safeguards can strengthen trust, reduce harm, and improve adoption among women.

Winners will receive financial awards, be recognized as industry innovators in trust-centered fintech, and gain visibility with investors and the broader financial services industry through curated events, publications, and showcases.

About 740 million women globally remain financially excluded, representing more than half of the world’s unbanked population.

One major barrier to financial inclusion for many excluded groups is a lack of trust. One in five unbanked adults in low- and middle-income countries cite it as a key reason for staying out of the financial system. Digital financial services are helping to close the financial inclusion gap, but they can only achieve sustained adoption if users trust them. Customers must feel confident that products are transparent, fair, and designed with their interests in mind. Yet across many markets, trust remains fragile. Concerns about fraud, opaque pricing, over-indebtedness, data misuse, and aggressive collection practices discourage customers from adopting or continuing to use financial services.

We believe that trust is not only a social good — it is a commercial imperative. Products designed around customer realities often demonstrate stronger repayment behavior, higher retention, and more durable growth. For providers competing in emerging markets, trust-centered design has proven to provide a competitive advantage.

Across markets, fintechs are working to address these issues. Many are improving underwriting, strengthening fraud detection, and building more transparent and responsible products.

Some providers are going further by introducing intentional design choices that reduce harm and improve customer understanding. This includes features such as additional prompts that encourage users to review key terms and interactive tools that help customers recognize and avoid fraud. Others are integrating gender-disaggregated data into product design, underwriting, and serving to better understand where risks to women’s financial security emerge and how outcomes might differ across customer groups.

The Trust by Design Fintech Challenge aims to spotlight and elevate these types of approaches. The goal is not only to recognize strong leaders in the space, but also to demonstrate that trust-centered design is good business.

The Trust by Design selection committee brings together five financial inclusion industry leaders — each offering a distinct lens on what it takes to build fintech that genuinely works for women customers at scale.

Rachel Freeman

Chief Growth Officer

GoTyme Bank

Buhle Goslar

Fintech Executive & Financial Inclusion Advocate

Pim Engels

Sr. Investment Officer

FMO

Amee Parbhoo

Managing Partner

Accion Ventures

Gayatri Murthy

Senior Financial Sector Specialist

CGAP

One $50,000 Grand Prize will be awarded to support continued innovation in trust-centered fintech.

Three finalists will each receive $10,000 awards.

Each challenge winner will also receive a complimentary ticket to attend the Fintech for Inclusion Global Summit, 2026 in London U.K., plus airfare and hotel accommodation for their attendee. Winners will also be featured in an industry toolkit highlighting innovations in trust-building in fintech, serving as a lasting resource for the sector. There will also be opportunities for sector recognition and visibility among a global network of impact and commercial investors.

Winners Notified — By August 14, 2026
Winners announced publicly — September 2, 2026, at the Fintech for Inclusion Global Summit, London

Find detailed FAQs here.

Review the official challenge rules here.

In this webinar, we explore how trust can be intentionally designed into digital financial products, where you can hear perspectives from across the financial inclusion ecosystem, and get a walkthrough of how to apply to the Trust by Design Fintech Challenge.