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Current trends in financial services are characterised by two intertwined developments. First, increasing digitalisation provides opportunities to invest or raise money through channels that have not been available with more traditional financial services. Crowd-investing and social-trading platforms act as new intermediaries. Similarly, automated advice (robo-advice) is attracting increased attention. Second, the financial crisis of 2007–2010 is associated with a considerable decline in trust in financial institutions, even more so in Iceland, which had experienced a complete collapse of its banking system. Despite the evaporation of trust in their banking system, Icelandic consumers were largely bound to use Icelandic financial institutions because capital controls were in place since the financial crisis until 2017, which limited investors’ opportunities to, for example, diversify their portfolios internationally. As financial decisions are inherently risky and since financial services have the characteristics of credence goods, those who wish to use financial services need to trust financial intermediaries or the immediate contractual partner. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the role of trust in the context of increased digitalisation, and to discuss steps to establish trust in digitalised financial services. Among other items, we discuss the information requirements accompanying financial products and financial institutions, data protection and liability in the context of emerging digitalisation. Our work holds implications for individuals, financial service providers, policy makers and supervisory authorities.

The enormous financial losses during the economic crash in Iceland led to widespread anxieties, coupled with a deep sense of shared national disaster and moral collapse (Bernburg, 2015; Ólafsson, 2014). The strong sense of betrayal indicates how economic processes are not only about economic prosperity, but are embedded also in wider societal discourses and a sense of national identity (Schwegler, 2009). We use perspectives from anthropology and cultural economics to ask how the lack of trust by the Icelandic population after the crash signals both a different way of visualising Iceland’s role within an increasingly global world and a changing sense of Icelanders as national subjects standing unified against foreigners. Iceland’s neo-liberalisation inserted the country into global institutions and processes with the faith that these processes would automatically be beneficial to Iceland. Furthermore, the sense of some kind of a unified Icelandic subject was manifested in the image of the ‘Business Viking’, which was seen as embodying the interest of the Icelandic nation as a whole. Following the economic crash, the betrayal of trust involved disrupting the idea of the ‘oneness’ of Iceland and thus, the sharp distinction between ‘us’ Icelanders and ‘those’ foreigners. In our discussion, we trace different ways of conceptualising this sense of Icelanders as a unified entity, asking what this notion means in terms of trust. Our research shows how the sense of ‘unified Icelanders’ was instrumental in creating the feeling of trust, and how it is possible to manipulate and appropriate that trust.

Purpose: This chapter analyzes several indicators of financial inclusion in Nigeria.

Method: This chapter uses trend analyses to examine the indicators of financial inclusion in Nigeria.

Findings: The findings reveal that people with a secondary education and unemployed people had higher levels of debit card ownership, higher levels of account ownership of any type, and higher levels of account ownership in a financial institution. Borrowings from family or friends decreased during the period. The level of savings and borrowings was higher for adults with at least a secondary education while the level of savings, using a savings club or persons outside the family, decreased among females, poor people and among people with a primary education. Credit card ownership was low among unemployed people, while credit card ownership was much higher among employed people, the richest people and among people with at least a secondary education. Finally, borrowings and savings using family, friends, or saving clubs significantly contributed to economic growth than borrowings and savings through financial institutions.

Implications: It shows that Nigerian authorities should increase the number of formal account ownership by removing obstacles such as income and education bias and gender discrimination in the delivery and use of financial services.

Originality: Recent studies in the literature have investigated financial inclusion in developing economies, but little attention has been paid on the determinants and challenges of financial inclusion in Nigeria. This chapter aims to fill this gap by providing a comprehensive understanding and analysis of financial inclusion in Nigeria.

In the context of increasing private provision of social security and welfare, alongside what is argued to be the ‘financialisation’ of daily lives, individuals in many countries face an array of potentially difficult financial choices and decisions. Limitations in levels of knowledge and expertise may lead them to consider seeking financial advice. Yet, in the wake of the great financial crisis, trust in the financial services industry is low.

At the same time, in a number of countries the financial advice sector is facing its own challenges. These include regulatory issues concerning the definition, suitability and delivery of advice; the affordability of advice; and the challenges and opportunities facing the advice sector as a result of the increasing use of technology in the financial services sector.

This chapter examines the implications of these developments for the regulation and governance of financial advice in the context of Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II. In particular, it considers the example of the UK and issues this raises for the implementation of recent European regulatory reforms.

Purpose: This conceptual paper aims to identify how financial inclusion relates to sustainability and the level of sustainable development.

Methodology: The paper used discourse analysis to identify how financial inclusion relates to sustainability and the level of sustainable development.

Finding: The paper argued that granting access to basic formal financial services contributes to greater sustainable development by ensuring that access to finance is guaranteed sustainably, and basic financial services are provided sustainably and based on sustainability principles to yield a lasting impact for sustainable development. The paper also argued that financial inclusion increases the level of sustainable development because financial inclusion increases the economic opportunities and social welfare of banked adults while it only provides limited benefits for the environment. This approach links financial inclusion to sustainable development by adopting sustainability principles in offering basic financial services to banked adults.

Implication: Consequently, a synergy between financial inclusion and sustainable development is needed. The synergy should be based on sustainability principles, requiring policies integrating financial inclusion into the sustainable development agenda.

Originality: This paper is the first to identify the relationship between the financial inclusion agenda, the sustainable development agenda and the sustainability agenda.