Today, we’re sitting down with Yusuf Mirakhmedov, the former CEO of Cunico, to discuss his path into modern finance.
His work is focused on developing financial solutions for underserved and unbanked people, with an emphasis on reducing friction in everyday payments and small-balance activity.
Invezz: You previously led Cunico during a period that drew significant legal and public attention. What was the ultimate resolution of that case, and why does documented closure matter for business leaders?
Cunico’s arbitration against North Macedonia (ICSID Case No. ARB/17/46) was settled, and the proceedings were discontinued, with ICSID’s institutional record reflecting the case’s closure via an order taking note of discontinuance under Arbitration Rule 43(1), dated 31 January 2020.
Public statements at the end of 2019 also described the outcome as comprehensive, using “fully and finally settled” language, and reported that Cunico retracted its treaty-breach allegations under the Netherlands–North Macedonia BIT as part of the settlement framework.
As I see it, the important point is not just that the dispute ended, but that its closure is documented and verifiable. In business, uncertainty doesn’t stay in the background; it shows up in due diligence, partner conversations, hiring decisions, and financing.
When the resolution is visible and verifiable, it stops being something people debate and becomes something they can check.
Invezz: After moving past that chapter, what motivated your shift toward building financial solutions for underserved and unbanked populations?
Once a chapter is truly closed, you develop an appreciation for systems that are simple, verifiable, and fair. For me, that connects directly to financial access.
Many systems were built around a profile that millions of people don’t match.
If you move countries for work, earn in cash, or support family across borders, the “standard” account opening journey can be slow, costly, or simply unavailable.
Even when services exist, the fees can be punishing at small ticket sizes. That’s not an edge case, but the default for a large share of the world.
Invezz: What are the biggest gaps you currently see in global financial access, especially for people who operate outside traditional banking systems?
The first gap is affordability, which doesn’t scale down. A fee that looks modest on a large transfer can be devastating when someone is moving money in small amounts for groceries, utilities, or school.
Add an opaque exchange rate, and a user ends up paying twice, once in fees and again in confusion.
The second gap is friction that assumes perfect documentation and stable life circumstances.
Plenty of people live in between categories, freelancing, travelling for seasonal work, supporting relatives in another country, renting informally, not having the right paperwork on the right day.
Systems that fail those users end up failing the economy built around them.
And the third gap is reliability and timing. A payment that arrives days later can miss rent, payroll, or medicine.
Speed matters, but so does certainty. People need to know if money is coming, when it will arrive, and what it will cost. The emotional load of not knowing is part of the real price.
The “small balance” user matters so much because the margin for delay or hidden cost is close to zero.
Invezz: How do you envision modern financial technology helping reduce friction in everyday transactions, cross-border payments, and small-balance economic activity?
It starts with outcomes people can actually rely on. Users should see the full cost, the delivery time, and the status of a transaction in plain language before they hit “send.”
When those basics are clear, trust flips from a marketing word to a product feature.
Cross-border movement should also feel more like a normal part of life.
Families and small businesses already operate across borders; the infrastructure simply hasn’t caught up.
Better systems reduce unnecessary intermediaries, shorten settlement time, and give people a trackable flow so they’re not stuck in limbo, wondering where their money is.
The stakes are obvious when the global average cost of sending remittances is still well above the 3% SDG target.
World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide puts the global average at 6.49% (Q1 2025, $200 benchmark)
Invezz: Looking ahead, what will “real access” to finance mean for unbanked and underbanked people, especially as decentralized neobanking ideas mature?
I think it will mean a transaction account that behaves like a utility – easy to open, safe by default, built for small balances without punishing fees.
It also has to travel with the person across jobs, borders, and documentation gaps, because that’s how many people live.
We’re at an interesting moment because demand is no longer hypothetical. Reviews show 79% of adults globally now have an account.
This is progress, but it also implies a very large group still sits outside the system.
Those adults remaining unbanked are almost at the 1.3 billion point, which is the scale any “future of finance” claim has to be measured against.
Decentralized neobanking ideas can help make financial services more portable and interoperable, especially for people whose lives don’t fit a single-country template.
In the future, I expect products to feel as smooth as the best consumer apps.
Yet they would be built with real safeguards, compliance hooks, and resilience so that they can serve everyday users for the long haul.
The best offerings will centre on everyday utility, predictable costs, and clear protections.
They will also need to work for users whose income is irregular or cross-border by default.
https://invezz.com/news/2026/03/30/after-the-settlement-yusuf-mirakhmedovs-focus-on-practical-financial-inclusion/
