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 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
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
As we reflect on International Women’s Month 2020, we look back on the different things we’ve learned about women’s financial needs, and all the things we are yet to learn! Under the banner #EachForEqual, International Women’s Day 2020 drew attention to the importance of collective individualism – recognising that we
Like a well-plotted mystery, the story of how the novel coronavirus is affecting our world adds a new chapter every day. From today’s vantage point, no one can see how it will turn out. One thing that is clear, however, is that the financial health of many if not most
While half of the world’s population is female, very little is known about their financial inclusion The availability of data on financial inclusion has grown tremendously in recent years. Data initiatives have played a critical role in deepening our understanding of financial inclusion – particularly initiatives such as the World
Why formal institutions aren’t the only ones driving Africa’s innovation and fintech space. There’s been a lot of well-deserved attention on the efforts of businesses, NGOs and other institutions working to reshape Africa’s innovation and fintech ecosystem. Indeed, Insight2Impact has highlighted several of those efforts in the Openi2i series. But there
Have you had a look at insight2impact’s Openi2i series yet? Openi2i is an initiative of Cenfri and Finmark Trust focused on sharing some of the programmatic learnings we’ve discovered from the last five years of jointly implementing the insight2impact programme. For Openi2i, we’ve partnered with NextBillion to document and explore
“Are we there yet?” It’s a familiar refrain to any parent who has taken a child on a long journey – you may even remember the stock replies your own parents supplied in similar situations. But “we’ll be there soon” probably didn’t correspond with your own perception of time, and
How do Mexicans solve their financial needs? This report outlines the findings from a study carried out by insight2impact in collaboration with Comision Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV) of Mexico to gauge how Mexicans meet their financial needs, especially when it comes to send and receive money, manage liquidity,
The shortage of data science skills is a major challenge for Africa. With relatively few local educational institutions offering dedicated data science degrees, the small contingent of existing Africa-based data scientists tend to have varied backgrounds – and they often acquire their data science skills by piecing together a range
It’s not easy delivering data-driven financial services to the financially excluded in Africa’s emerging economies. That’s why technical assistance (TA) can be essential to the success of the region’s financial service providers (FSPs). Comprised of various forms of non-financial assistance provided by outside specialists, TA can take the form of
