With an emphasis on inclusive financial integrity, Cenfri provides technical assistance, tools and skills building to policymakers, regulators, supervisors and compliance heads looking to apply risk-based and outcomes accountable approaches to money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation-financing risk strategies. Combining our understanding of relevant risks, familiarity with the FATF guidelines, knowledge of identity and identity-proofing capabilities and leveraging our competency in risk data analytics, we support financial service value chains undertake assessments from national level to the financial product level, thereby enabling the adoption of appropriate customer due diligence practices. Cenfri is committed to assisting countries to move off the grey list responsibly, shaping national risk assessment processes with empirical data and working with remittance services’ compliance managers to ensure that low-income households are not disproportionately affected in receiving low-value remittances. We are interested in mitigating the longer-term impact of illicit financial flows using digital technology (regtech, suptech and AI) to evaluate and monitor illicit flows and enhance inclusive financial integrity. We have worked with BankServ Africa, FSD Africa, GIZ, IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances, UNCDF and AFI on a range of financial integrity and identity projects. |
Will CBDC solve your financial inclusion woes or further exclude the vulnerable? Central bank-backed digital currency (CBDC) may alleviate financial exclusion barriers, but it comes with risks. Given some of the shortcomings of digital financial services in reaching financially excluded populations, central banks in developing and emerging markets have increasingly
Financial inclusion has evolved from a grass-root microfinance movement in the 1980s to a mainstream item on the development agenda. Its increasing prominence is attested, amongst others, by the formation of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), the recognition of financial inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals and
In 2014, the Bank of Ghana (BOG) granted permission for reduced KYC requirements for a new Fidelity Bank product that targeted consumers at the bottom of the pyramid. The product, Smart Account, required only one form of national identity and no additional document to open the account, and so became
During my tenure at South Africa’s National Treasury, the discussions around financial inclusion often focused on seemingly straightforward questions: What is the state of financial inclusion in the country? What are the most critical areas requiring policy interventions? What targets are appropriate for what we want to achieve? How will
(Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series.) “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us” – Marshall McLuhan In 2010, the leaders of the G20 launched the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) at the G20 Summit in Seoul. It was a watershed moment for financial inclusion, which
You manage what you measure and thus it is important to have a measurement framework that drives the right behaviour. Financial inclusion has strong established measurement frameworks dealing with access to and usage of financial services. (e.g. AFI’s access and usage indicators, FinDex’s formal account ownership indicator and FinScope’s access
insight2impact (i2i) is exploring how data can be used by financial service providers to create client value and enhance firm value simultaneously We posed some data-related questions to Marc van der Zon, Head of Central Analytics at Hollard Insurance Company. This topic will be further explored during the invitation-only roundtable discussion
insight2impact (i2i) is exploring how data can be used by financial service providers to create client value and enhance firm value simultaneously. We interviewed Morné van der Westhuizen and Alex Shabala to understand the role of data in decision-making at Zoona, an African mobile payments operator. This topic will be further explored during the invitation-only
Digital financial inclusion holds great promise. Last year, a McKinsey report found that digital finance could add up to $3.7 trillion to the GDP of emerging economies within a decade. A recent blog from the World Bank explains that the biggest impact from financial inclusion comes from digital payments and savings accounts. Studies
Ekow Duker, Managing Director of Ixio Analytics, shares his views on the way in which financial service providers approach and use data. Ekow was the moderator of the insight2impact roundtable discussion, which we hosted as part of the Chief Data & Analytics Officer Africa event in July 2017. During the insight2impact roundtable
Advances in technology have fundamentally changed the way in which survey and behavioural data is collected. There has been a steady decline in face-to-face and telephonic data collection over the past 10 years, with a corresponding and rapid increase in digital data collection. The widespread use of the mobile phone
