Finance problems worth solving

Financial machinery was built for institutions. These are the places where everyone else falls through.

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Framed 21 Sep Ed. 1

FinanceProblem 0007

Small firms are assessed on documents they were never required to produce. Audited accounts, filed returns and collateral registries are what credit models expect; a profitable shop with a phone, a supplier relationship and ten years of trading has none of them. The lender cannot see the business, so the business does not exist to the lender, and the money goes to whoever already had the paperwork.

Who lives with itOwner-managed and informal firms · community and development lenders · the suppliers already extending them credit informally

Why nowThe IFC estimates an unmet financing need of about $5.2 trillion for formal micro, small and medium enterprises and a further $2.9 trillion for informal ones, with roughly 70% of MSMEs in emerging markets lacking adequate finance: firms that together account for around 70% of employment worldwide.

Why it mattersThe signal exists and is being thrown away: supply ledgers, payments, logistics records and phone data describe a business more honestly than a filed account. Turning transaction exhaust into a defensible credit view is the product, and the financing gap it would help close is measured in trillions.

Inspired by reporting from International Finance Corporation

A funded startup to make a dent in Critical (Ainna's editorial grade)

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Framed 21 Sep Ed. 1

FinanceProblem 0018

Insurers are withdrawing from places where people still live and still owe money. The mortgage requires cover; the cover depends on a risk model that has stopped holding. Homeowners find out at renewal, with weeks to replace a policy that may not exist at any price, and often no accepted way to show an insurer the work they have done to make the building safer, because that evidence is rarely collected in a form an underwriter will accept.

Who lives with itHomeowners in high-risk areas · mortgage lenders and brokers · local authorities watching values move

Why nowIn January 2025 the US Treasury's Federal Insurance Office, drawing on over 330 insurers and 246 million policies, found non-renewal rates in the highest climate-risk ZIP codes running about 80% above the lowest, with premiums averaging 82% higher.

Why it mattersNobody owns the gap between the loan and the policy, and the one thing that would narrow it (verified, property-level evidence of risk reduction) is what neither side routinely collects.

Inspired by reporting from U.S. Department of the Treasury

A funded startup to make a dent in Critical (Ainna's editorial grade)

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Framed 1 Oct Ed. 1

FinanceProblem 0030

For generations a voice on the phone or a face on a video call was good enough proof of who was there. Banks built call-centre checks on it, companies approve payments on it, and families trust it when a relative asks for help. AI now copies voices and faces cheaply and well enough to pass, so the signal most people rely on has stopped being proof. Scammers pose as banks, officials and relatives, and victims move money believing the person is real. Checks that ask a person to judge whether a call is genuine keep failing, because that judgement is exactly what the fakes defeat. What is missing is a way to prove a real person is present that does not depend on how they look or sound.

Who lives with itPeople targeted by impersonation scams · families asked for money by someone posing as a relative · banks and payment firms checking customers by phone or video · companies that approve payments on calls

Why nowUS Federal Trade Commission data released on 15 June 2026 show that people reported losing $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, nearly three times the losses reported in 2020, making them the most reported fraud. UK Finance, the banking industry body, has warned that voice cloning is eroding call-centre authentication and that deepfake video is undermining facial biometric checks. Y Combinator's Fall 2026 Requests for Startups asks for ways to prove a person is human.

Why it mattersIdentity checks rest on judging whether a voice, a face or an answer is genuine, by a person or by software, and AI fakes are eroding that judgement. Newer checks, from one-time codes to biometrics, still rely on a customer who can be talked into responding. Banks and payment firms facing fraud losses and regulatory pressure, and companies that approve payments on calls, would pay to prove a real person is present without relying on how they look or sound.

Inspired by reporting from Federal Trade Commission

A funded startup to make a dent in High (Ainna's editorial grade)3 sources

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Framed 27 Sep Ed. 1

FinanceProblem 0028

Europe already has a way to move money between bank accounts in seconds, at any hour: instant payments. Merchants can rarely take them, and almost never from a customer in another country. Each country's card scheme works at home and stops at the border, and the software that would let a till or an online checkout accept an instant payment has been slow to arrive. So money can move, but a shop cannot be paid that way. Meanwhile the international card networks keep their hold because every shopper and every merchant already uses them, which makes any alternative hard to adopt even when the plumbing beneath it is ready.

Who lives with itEuropean merchants · shoppers · payment service providers

Why nowWriting for CEPR on 25 September 2026, Agnès Bénassy-Quéré of the Banque de France reports that 13 of the euro area's 21 countries still rely entirely on non-EU networks for card payments, and that even the domestic schemes stop at national borders, although the euro area has had its own instant-payment system since 2018. She argues the private sector has been too slow to build the software at tills and online checkouts that would let people use it.

Why it mattersA way to move money is not yet a way to be paid. The gap stays open because the card networks already connect most shoppers and merchants, while the newer schemes stop at national borders, so a merchant gains little by adding one. A small team could start narrow: let merchants who trade across one border accept instant payments at checkout, instead of trying to replace Europe's payment networks.

Inspired by reporting from Centre for Economic Policy Research

A funded startup to make a dent in High (Ainna's editorial grade)

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Finance problems worth solving

Invisible small-firm credit: Small firms can't prove a trading history lenders accept

Withdrawn home insurance: Homeowners lose insurance their mortgage still requires

A familiar voice or face no longer proves who's calling: AI fakes now pass the voice and face checks people rely on

Unusable instant payments: European merchants can't take instant payments across borders