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.

Financial Inclusion

Conservative compliance behaviour in South Africa

The quest for inclusive financial markets is a challenge for both business and regulatory models as it requires new and largely unknown portions of the market to be served. This quest can at times be frustrated by regulatory barriers to inclusion that make it costly to provide financial services to

Financial Inclusion

Mzansi and Zimele product standards in South Africa

Insurance usage in South Africa has for a long time been out of reach of the majority of the low-income population. In 2004, the FinScope survey of financial services usage reported that only 13% of the country’s low-income population had at least one long-term insurance product. The usage figure for

Financial Inclusion

Funeral insurance

Funeral insurance is not just insurance business as usual and requires a dedicated understanding of the dynamics driving funeral insurance markets. This applies to both insurers seeking to effectively target and distribute it, as well as for regulators seeking to find the right regulatory approach to it. Published by ILO

Financial Inclusion

Swaziland’s microinsurance landscape

Microinsurance (or insurance in general) may not be affordable to all Swazis. Below a certain income threshold, non-market interventions such as public social safety nets can play the role of insurance. With this in mind, the market opportunity for microinsurance in Swaziland is estimated to stand at about 633,000 people.

Digital Transformation & Data

Microinsurance innovation in Brazil

These 2011 case studies on microinsurance innovation in Brazil forms part of a series on alternative, innovative microinsurance distribution models. These case studies are focused on retailer, utility and telecommunications distribution of microinsurance. The first case study covers the partnerships between Mapfre, an insurance company, and Casas Bahia and Vivo,

Financial Inclusion

Informal insurance markets

This 2010 presentation tackled the issue of informal insurance markets at the Financial Stability Institute’s meeting on microinsurance.

Financial Inclusion

Microinsurance innovation in Colombia

This 2011 case study on microinsurance innovation in Colombia forms part of a series of case studies on alternative, innovative microinsurance distribution models prepared for the ILO’s Microinsurance Innovation Facility. The case study covers three channels, namely the partnership between Codensa, an electricity utility company, and the insurance company Mapfre;

Digital Transformation & Data

New frontiers in microinsurance distribution

The International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Microinsurance Innovation Facility (MIF) commissioned Cenfri to compare innovative distribution models from India, South Africa, Colombia and Brazil. The study was based on several case studies conducted and commissioned by Cenfri. The aim was to create a typology for innovative microinsurance distribution channels and extract

Financial Inclusion

Remittance study on Zimbabwe migrant workers in South Africa

This 2010 study is concerned with the remittance of funds to Zimbabwe from South Africa and assesses the suitability of the 90-day casual worker’s permit issued to Zimbabweans as a tool for financial inclusion with a focus on the remittance of funds to Zimbabwe. Whilst the 90-day permit ceased to