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
SADC faces high levels of exclusion in insurance. It is therefore appropriate for SADC supervisors to pursue inclusive insurance markets based on international guidance. Since the vast majority of SADC populations are excluded from insurance, it also holds that retail markets are extremely small. Microinsurance can, therefore, form a foundation for
Distribution is one of the key challenges in extending microinsurance to the low-income market. Traditionally, insurance distribution is either via brokers or agents or, in the low-income space, on a compulsory sales basis on the back of credit. More recently, commercial insurers have started to employ other, alternative distribution channels
Hospital cash plans (HCPs) have emerged as an affordable risk cover for many low-income South Africans without access to medical aid. HCPs pay out a cash amount directly to the client on hospitalisation, rather than by providing comprehensive care cover. The increasing popularity of HCPs in South Africa have become
A number of financial products and services are offered by or through retailers in South Africa. This spans the broad financial services spectrum including transactional, savings, insurance and credit products. This 2014 study sought to understand retailers’ motivation for providing these financial services more fully. It studied FMCG retailers, cash-based
Hospital cash plans (HCPs) have the potential to provide financial protection against health risks to low-income individuals that are unable to afford medical scheme membership, but still incur significant costs or co-payments at a public facility. This 2013 report is a follow-up to our review of the South African market
Between 2003 and 2011, the provision of bank accounts in South Africa grew from 30% to 46%. Technology and branchless solutions play key roles in improving access to financial services. Physical bank branches are, however, often critical to persistent high-value take-up and use of financial products as it plays an
This 2012 study analysed the demand, supply and regulatory framework for retail payment services in Zambia, how they can play a transformative financial inclusion role, and the market and regulatory challenges to be overcome for that potential to be realised. The report is part of a series of studies that
Implications for policymakers and regulators Funeral insurance is the most prevalent form of insurance in South Africa with just less than 90% of all risk cover being attributed to this form of insurance, more than a quarter of which is informal. This 2012 paper presents the nature of informality in
This case study on microinsurance innovation in Colombia forms part of a series of case studies on alternative, innovative microinsurance distribution models prepared for the International Labour Organization’s Microinsurance Innovation Facility. The case study covers three channels, namely the partnership between Codensa, an electricity utility company, and the insurance company Mapfre;
