The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum has long served as a barometer for global economic trends, but this year’s discussions revealed a fundamental shift in the geography of financial innovation. When Thiago Ruediger, CEO of Tanssi Foundation, declared that the real fintech revolution is happening in the Global South rather than Wall Street, he articulated a transformation that extends far beyond technological advancement to encompass a restructuring of global financial power dynamics.
The timing of Ruediger’s remarks at the forum’s opening session, “Shaping a New Platform for Global Growth”, is particularly significant. As traditional Western financial centres grapple with regulatory constraints and legacy infrastructure, emerging markets demonstrate that innovation often flourishes where necessity meets opportunity. The Brazilian executive’s assertion that blockchain technology is making money and assets programmable, especially when combined with artificial intelligence, represents more than technological progress—it signals a fundamental reimagining of financial services architecture.
This shift challenges decades of assumptions about financial innovation originating in developed markets and trickling down to emerging economies. Instead, we are witnessing a reverse flow where solutions developed in Brazil, India, Kenya, and other Global South nations set new standards for efficiency, inclusion, and accessibility. The implications extend beyond mere technological adoption to encompass questions of economic sovereignty, geopolitical influence, and the future structure of global financial systems.
The context provided by session moderator Maxim Oreshkin, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration, underscores the broader geopolitical framework within which this financial transformation is occurring. His observation that the forum occurs against a backdrop of global turbulence—including Middle Eastern conflicts and trade wars—highlights how financial innovation has become inseparable from geopolitical strategy. The ability to create independent financial infrastructure represents a form of soft power that emerging markets are increasingly wielding to assert their autonomy from Western-dominated systems.
As emphasised by Ruediger, the programmability of assets through blockchain technology represents a paradigm shift in how value is created, stored, and transferred. Traditional financial systems rely on intermediaries and centralised authorities to validate transactions and maintain trust. Blockchain-based systems, by contrast, enable peer-to-peer transactions with cryptographic security, reducing costs and increasing speed while maintaining transparency. Combined with artificial intelligence, these systems can adapt to user behaviour, predict financial needs, and automate complex financial processes that previously required human intervention.
Brazil’s experience, which Ruediger highlighted as an example of successful fintech implementation, offers valuable insights into how emerging markets can leapfrog traditional development stages. The country’s instant payment system, PIX, launched in 2020, now processes more transactions than credit and debit cards combined, demonstrating how purpose-built digital infrastructure can rapidly transform financial behaviour. This success story is being replicated across the Global South, where mobile money platforms, digital lending services, and blockchain-based remittance systems create financial ecosystems tailored to local needs rather than imported Western models.
The exchange of experiences between Brazil and Russia that Ruediger mentioned reflects a broader trend of South-South cooperation in financial innovation. Rather than looking exclusively to Silicon Valley or London for technological solutions, emerging markets increasingly learn from each other’s successes and failures. This horizontal knowledge transfer creates an innovation ecosystem that operates parallel to, and increasingly independent of, traditional Western financial centres.
The economic implications of this shift are profound. As Ruediger noted, fintech innovations dramatically reduce transaction costs in global financial markets, making international trade more accessible to small and medium enterprises in emerging markets. This democratisation of financial services creates new economic opportunities for millions previously excluded from the formal financial system. The ripple effects extend to job creation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth in regions historically marginalised from global financial flows.
However, this transformation also presents challenges that require careful consideration. The rapid adoption of new financial technologies in markets with limited regulatory frameworks raises questions about consumer protection, economic stability, and systemic risk. The integration of artificial intelligence into financial services, while offering tremendous benefits in efficiency and personalisation, also raises concerns about algorithmic bias, data privacy, and the potential for technological unemployment in traditional banking sectors.
The geopolitical dimensions of this fintech revolution cannot be ignored. As emerging markets develop financial infrastructure that operates independently of Western systems, they gain leverage in international negotiations and reduce their vulnerability to economic sanctions. This technological sovereignty represents a form of decolonisation in the financial sphere, challenging the post-World War II financial order dominated by Western institutions and currencies.
Looking forward, the trends identified at SPIEF suggest that the next decade will accelerate financial innovation in the Global South, with implications for developed markets. Western financial institutions and regulators must adapt to a world where innovation increasingly originates in São Paulo, Lagos, or Mumbai rather than New York or London. This shift will require new forms of international cooperation, regulatory harmonisation, and technological standards reflecting global finance’s multipolar nature.
The session’s focus on forming a new platform for global growth, as outlined in the International Open Dialogue report, suggests that stakeholders recognise the need for inclusive frameworks that accommodate diverse economic models and technological approaches. The challenge will be creating systems that enable interoperability between different financial ecosystems while respecting national sovereignty and local innovation.
As the forum continues, the insights shared by Ruediger and other participants will likely shape discussions about the future of global finance. The recognition that fintech innovation is fundamentally changing the game’s rules, impacting traditional banks while creating new opportunities for millions, represents a crucial shift in understanding where and how financial innovation occurs. The Global South’s emergence as a leader in financial technology is not merely a temporary phenomenon but a structural shift that will define the future of global finance for decades to come.
The results of the session “Forming a new global growth platform” became the basis for the subsequent PMEF-2025 business program. A record of the broadcast of the session “By forming a new global growth platform” can be viewed on the National Centre “Russia” website.
