IF25 Closes With Sessions on Post-War Recovery, Cooperatives and the Future of Artificial Intelligence in Inclusive Finance

• Over 760 attendees – in-person and online and from 69 countries – at hybrid conference, and more than 100 speakers over 30+ sessions

• RADIANT Yacu of Rwanda wins €100,000 European Microfinance Award 2025

• ‘Inclusive Finance for Youth’ announced as topic of 2026 Award

• Launch of e-MFP publications ‘Building resilience through inclusive insurance’ and ‘Members’ Spotlight 2025’

• Selected sessions live-streamed and recorded

Luxembourg, 18 November 2025, For Immediate Release

Inclusive Finance 25 (IF25) concluded Friday at Luxembourg’s Abbaye de Neumünster with a closing plenary on the future of artificial intelligence (AI), entitled ‘The Good, the Bad... or Just Hype?  The Future of AI in Inclusive Finance’. Moderated by Blaine Stephens, the closing session involved Demet Canakci from Toronto Centre, Sarah Corley from Alliance DFA, who were joined online by special guest A.I Meena, an AI chatbot.

What’s clear is that Generative AI usage is exploding (60% of financial institutions using it today, versus 25% a year ago), but only 6% are tracking KPIs. The audience – polled several times during the session – virtually unanimously use AI as a ‘co-pilot’ to support tasks, but have strong concerns about trust, explainability, and ethics. We must remember that it is humans we are serving, and any decision that is influenced by AI needs to be understandable by humans. Asked for their 2026 priority, the audience strongly felt that building transparency was top, and strengthening explainability, client recourse, and ethical safeguards to complement the enormous potential that AI offers. ‘Get started’ and ‘Be clear on your values’ was the summary from Blaine to wrap up the session, and the IF25 conference.

Friday morning saw another plenary entitled ‘The Role of Cooperatives in Accelerating a Sustainable Transition’. 2025 has been designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Cooperatives. It is the only business model to be honoured with such a distinction—not once, but twice—under the theme “Cooperatives Build a Better World.” What makes this model so unique? Can cooperatives rightfully claim that they contribute to a better world? This session (which built upon a webinar and blog series hosted by e-MFP over the course of 2025) began with an interactive and emotive activity that involved the audience, and explored how cooperatives are playing a role in addressing pressing issues such as the sustainable transition.

Friday afternoon involved a packed session entitled ‘From Wartime Survival to Post-War Recovery: Inclusive Finance in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine’. Representatives of financial institutions in each of those countries talked about challenges of displacement, cashflow, portfolio quality, communications, but with profound tales of hope and resilience in challenging contexts. These stories were supported by 60 Decibels and SIDI, who talked about data collection, the transformative power of mobiles, and the key need for relationships on the ground with partners.

e-MFP’s newly-rebranded conference welcomed almost 350 in-person attendees to the Abbaye de Neumünster, who took part in four plenaries, over 30 breakout sessions, breakfast meetings, e-MFP Action Groups, ‘speed-dating’ and several networking sessions – including those organised by conference sponsors.

This year, three of e-MFP’s active Action Groups also held sessions at IF25. The Green Finance Action Group members heard updates on recent and ongoing work (including automated reporting on Green Index 3.0 for FSPs), how to make the Green Index and Green Map more user-friendly and better integrated into the responsible finance ecosystem – and get feedback on plans for 2026 and beyond. The e-MFP Gender Lens Investing Action Group (GLI) presented the provisional GLI Resource Portal under development, welcoming consultants and members of the AG’s advisory committee to demonstrate the portal and invite feedback before a hard launch in Q2 of 2026. And the e-MFP/Aqua for All WASH Action Group presented provisional data from the current research at four institutions to field-test the WASH impact indicators developed in 2023 and 2024, followed by a panel that discussed the next stage – how to develop a common reporting framework and host standardised WASH data.

On Thursday, during the plenary on Building Resilience through Inclusive Insurance’, the topic of the European Microfinance Award 2025, e-MFP launched two new publications – the annual Award publication that presents a topic landscape and case studies of the 12 Award semi-finalists, and insights on best practice – and the Members’ Spotlight 2025, which for the first time not only asked e-MFP members what they’re doing on the topic of the Award, but also their opinions on inclusive insurance trends, barriers, innovations and forecasts.

On Thursday there was the ceremony for the €100,000 European Microfinance Award 2025 with the Award won by RADIANT Yacu. Ltd – Rwanda’s first and only dedicated microinsurance company, part of Rwanda’s RADIANT insurance group and licensed in 2020 to serve low-income and rural populations often left outside the formal sector. RADIANT builds on the country’s extensive savings-group movement, including co-operatives and savings and credit co-operative organisations (SACCOs) which for decades have pooled resources for loans and mutual support. For RADIANT, insurance finds a natural home here, because members already understand risk-sharing and collective contribution. Trusted local institutions carry out registration, premium collection and information dissemination. A partnership with telco MTN Rwanda enables digital onboarding, as well as premium collection and claims payment via mobile money. And trained local agents and field officers support face-to-face service outreach, education and claims support, particularly in rural areas.

Generously hosted by the European Investment Bank (EIB), the ceremony involved films and interviews with representatives from the three finalists, interviews with the CEO of the 2024 winner, and a keynote address from Ekhosuehi Iyahen, Secretary General of the Insurance Development Forum, described in her keynote speech how inclusive insurance can act as “a critical bridge that transforms uncertainty into opportunity, fear into foresight, and vulnerability into agency”.

The ceremony concluded with the announcement that the topic of the 2026 Award would be ‘Financial Inclusion for Youth’.