Now reading: Financial Inclusion

Financial Inclusion


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.

This road will not get you there
Financial Inclusion

This road will not get you there

This week I drove 600km from Cape Town airport to my home and sheep farm in the rural Karoo. Whereas the drive was pleasant and gave me time to reflect on many things, the joy of driving was definitely not the purpose of this journey. Getting home to my family

Facilitating market development to advance financial inclusion
Financial Inclusion

Facilitating market development to advance financial inclusion

CGAP’s focus note, Facilitating Market Development to Advance Financial Inclusion, presents FinMark Trust as a “facilitator” for financial market development in South Africa. A facilitator is an informed, trusted, independent and locally based interlocutor responsible for making sure that the needs of all parties in the financial system are met. What

I’ll see you in court!
Financial Inclusion

I’ll see you in court!

See you in court? Unlikely. In recent times most law courts in Africa have not been suitable places to enforce or defend low-value retail credit contracts – the transactions costs associated with the legal process swamp the value of most claims. A lender usually only goes to court in order

Financial Inclusion

Using consumer insights to unlock the potential of financial inclusion

If we move away from a one-dimensional view of financial inclusion as the percentage of adults with a formal bank account, we find that formal financial services are in fact having a limited impact on people’s lives (or in some cases leaving people worse off). Insights from the MAP Global Insights

Financial Inclusion

Why digital payments are not replacing cash

Globally, the financial inclusion agenda has focused on migrating consumers, providers and governments to digital payment instruments, in a bid to reduce the cost of payments and to allow for the digitisation of other services for which payments are required (e.g. savings, credit and insurance). However, despite the increasing focus

Consumer Outcomes

Completing the picture in ASEAN

This blog series seeks to generate a broader discussion on the data that is needed to close the gender gap in financial inclusion in ASEAN. A previous blog post argued that the headline data available on financial inclusion in the ASEAN region – the percentage of women with access to

Digital Transformation & Data

GIS community of practice

The first GIS-focused community of practice knowledge-sharing session on 26 November 2015 focused on ways to promote maximum usage of geospatial data and financial access maps by the private sector. insight2impact (i2ifacility) was funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. The programme was established and driven by

Financial Inclusion

Customer views on abuses in the informal funeral parlour market in South Africa

Funeral parlours and burial societies deliver value to consumers by meeting essential functional needs, but also by meeting social and cultural needs. Funeral parlours have a powerful position in the funeral value chain. This exposes consumers to abuse. Such abuses are common and cut across different spheres, such as health

Financial Inclusion

Why bank account access does not translate into usage

Underlying the global financial inclusion agenda is the assumption that providing access to and ownership of bank accounts will improve the lives of previously excluded adults and contribute to economic growth objectives. This assumption is reinforced by surveys such as Findex and FinScope, which monitor the progress of financial inclusion