Policymakers, regulators and supervisors in emerging markets are under pressure to develop, implement and enforce policy and regulation that conforms to global best practice but is effective locally despite considerable constraints. Cenfri leverages the legal background, policymaking and regulatory experience of key team members and assists via direct regulatory development or policy guidance but more often through technical assistance and skills building.
Much of our work has been in the financial sector across Africa, Asia and Latin America. This includes an impressive “regulating for innovation” portfolio in support of financial sector regulators who are grappling with innovation or market development mandates in regulatory environments that do not effectively accommodate the range of risks presented by new financial service innovations. We also support improved digital and data governance in Africa. Examples range from creating a set of scenarios on the possible digital futures in Africa, to developing a data-sharing policy for the Government of Rwanda and researching fit-for-context open finance solutions for Africa.
Innovation can enable insurance to become a powerful engine of growth and development across the continent, but achieving this requires that market players and regulators work together to build an ecosystem in which responsible innovation can thrive. For regulators, doing so means not only understanding the current state of innovation
Nothing illustrates the incredible power of data-driven decision-making more than the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Lamenting the disparities in genomic sequencing data from high versus lower-middle income countries, Professor Happi, from the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in Nigeria, has talked about the pressure they experienced early
The Finance Forward series aims to collect and present key findings on recent trends, driving forces, and relevant issues impacting upon the financial sector in Africa. The series intends to help leaders scan the larger, interlocking environments from which trends and themes emerge and interpret the contents based on the
In the six countries featured in the MAP Global Insights series, informal financial services persist despite an explicit push both globally and within the countries to migrate consumers towards formal financial services. Whilst it is increasingly acknowledged that informal services often offer benefits that formal services do not (such as
Depth sounding: shifting measurement away from a one-dimensional view of financial inclusion (Note 2) is the second note to be published from the MAP Global Insights series. It introduces a new approach to measuring financial inclusion. To the traditional emphasis on measuring ‘breadth’ – that is, the number of people using any
Decoding the customer – First impressions from a more granular understanding of client typology is the first note to be published from the MAP Global Insights series, and unpacks the target market segmentation approach that is central to programme’s client-centric analytical methodology, providing a clear and concise look at the emerging cross-country customer
Financial services, including savings accounts and investments into capital assets such as land, have traditionally excluded women in the ASEAN region. Evidence shows that including them can greatly influence the intergenerational wealth of their families. This report focuses on the role played by remittances in achieving broader development objectives with
In 1778 the first modern-day savings bank in Germany was founded in Hamburg. The bank was set up to develop solutions for people with low incomes to save small sums of money and support business startups. Fast forward two centuries and there are now 431 savings banks in Germany with
Financial inclusion emerged as a key pillar of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) beginning in 2015. The ASEAN Financial Inclusion Conference in 2014 concluded with the release of the “Yangon Outcomes for Financial Inclusion”, a set of recommendations to accelerate financial inclusion in the ASEAN region. This 2014 report focuses
An update on microinsurance in South Africa. In 2011, a policy document entrenched and refined a proposed microinsurance regulatory framework for South Africa that was envisaged to be incorporated into a forthcoming Microinsurance Act and subordinate legislation. However, in 2013 the decision was made to no longer pursue standalone microinsurance
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
