Now reading: 7 Lessons from 2024

Financial Integrity & Identity


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.

Consumer Outcomes

7 Lessons from 2024

Although Cenfri has deep roots in financial inclusion and micro-insurance, our portfolio of work has expanded substantially over the intervening years since the organisation’s launch in 2008. While this list is non-exhaustive, we have used our evidence-informed-impact approach to build credible experience in the following areas: Context-appropriate open finance in

Read More »
Financial Integrity & Identity

Unlocking growth: 3 key opportunities for remittance service providers

Many remittance service providers (RSPs) face a tough balancing act; they’re trying to innovate and grow, but it feels like they’re driving with the brakes on. On one side, they need to expand and lower costs to reach more customers, but on the other, strict compliance rules are slowing them

Read More »
Financial Integrity & Identity

The Remittance Innovation Toolkit: Guidance on improving access to remittances

There’s no disputing the contribution of migrant remittances to the economic well-being of friends and family back home. For many African countries, the value of remittance flows exceeds that of foreign direct investment.   However accessing the money via formal channels can be challenging for recipients who are faced with Know

Read More »
Financial Integrity & Identity

A new approach to tackling deforestation

Over the past three years, the Global Stocktake (GST) embarked on a consultative journey to assess progress towards the objectives of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The synthesis of these discussions has yielded 17 critical insights, spotlighting both achievements and hurdles in the implementation of the Agreement. Notably, efforts to

Read More »
Financial Integrity & Identity

An assessment of customer due diligence and identity regulatory frameworks

Innovation opportunities for enhanced remittance access As part of our Remittance Access Ininitative (RAI), Cenfri conducted a regulatory assessment of seven countries (Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, The Gambia and Uganda) to consider whether the regulatory environment was conducive to innovations around the know-your-customer (KYC) and customer due diligence

Read More »
Strengthening financial integrity through inclusion
Financial Integrity & Identity

Strengthening financial integrity through inclusion

How proof of address fell In our financial integrity work, we found that in the wake of global efforts to curb money laundering and combat the financing of terrorism (AML-CFT), financial integrity often came at the cost of financial inclusion.   The requirement for financial service providers to undertake know-your-customer (KYC) and customer due diligence (CDD)

Read More »
The FATF standards and the unintended consequences
Financial Integrity & Identity

The FATF standards and the unintended consequences

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is the intergovernmental standard-setting body and watchdog for anti-money laundering, combating the financing of terrorism and other illicit financial flows. This year, the FATF announced new research into the potential unintended consequences of incorrect implementation of the FATF standards and recommendations. FATF identified four areas of concern: de-risking,

Read More »
An inclusive digital identity platform in the Pacific Islands: country-level diagnostics
Digital Transformation & Data

An inclusive digital identity platform in the Pacific Islands

Digital identity is increasingly becoming the key enabler of digital inclusion across the globe. We conducted three country diagnostic studies to understand and assess the use cases and ecosystem requirements for a digital identity (ID) platform in the Pacific Island countries of Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. This research

Read More »
Africa: New toolkit may unlock access to financial services
Financial Integrity & Identity

Africa: New toolkit may unlock access to financial services

Hundreds of millions of people globally remain excluded from formal financial services to meet their needs in an affordable way. According to Findex (2017), 17% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa report not having a financial account because they cannot produce identity documents that banks are requesting as part of their

Read More »
Inclusive compliance models
Financial Integrity & Identity

Inclusive AML-CFT models in Africa: Lessons from six financial service providers

This study set out to develop and apply inclusive compliance models in anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism (AML-CFT) to assist country and institutional stakeholders in achieving inclusive integrity outcomes. An inclusive compliance model is a compliance approach that minimises the cost of compliance while still adequately managing

Read More »
Consumer Outcomes

7 Lessons from 2024

Although Cenfri has deep roots in financial inclusion and micro-insurance, our portfolio of work has expanded substantially over the intervening years since the organisation’s launch in 2008. While this list is non-exhaustive, we have used our evidence-informed-impact approach to build credible experience in the following areas: Context-appropriate open finance in

Financial Integrity & Identity

Unlocking growth: 3 key opportunities for remittance service providers

Many remittance service providers (RSPs) face a tough balancing act; they’re trying to innovate and grow, but it feels like they’re driving with the brakes on. On one side, they need to expand and lower costs to reach more customers, but on the other, strict compliance rules are slowing them

Financial Integrity & Identity

The Remittance Innovation Toolkit: Guidance on improving access to remittances

There’s no disputing the contribution of migrant remittances to the economic well-being of friends and family back home. For many African countries, the value of remittance flows exceeds that of foreign direct investment.   However accessing the money via formal channels can be challenging for recipients who are faced with Know

Financial Integrity & Identity

A new approach to tackling deforestation

Over the past three years, the Global Stocktake (GST) embarked on a consultative journey to assess progress towards the objectives of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The synthesis of these discussions has yielded 17 critical insights, spotlighting both achievements and hurdles in the implementation of the Agreement. Notably, efforts to

Financial Integrity & Identity

An assessment of customer due diligence and identity regulatory frameworks

Innovation opportunities for enhanced remittance access As part of our Remittance Access Ininitative (RAI), Cenfri conducted a regulatory assessment of seven countries (Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, The Gambia and Uganda) to consider whether the regulatory environment was conducive to innovations around the know-your-customer (KYC) and customer due diligence

Strengthening financial integrity through inclusion
Financial Integrity & Identity

Strengthening financial integrity through inclusion

How proof of address fell In our financial integrity work, we found that in the wake of global efforts to curb money laundering and combat the financing of terrorism (AML-CFT), financial integrity often came at the cost of financial inclusion.   The requirement for financial service providers to undertake know-your-customer (KYC) and customer due diligence (CDD)

The FATF standards and the unintended consequences
Financial Integrity & Identity

The FATF standards and the unintended consequences

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is the intergovernmental standard-setting body and watchdog for anti-money laundering, combating the financing of terrorism and other illicit financial flows. This year, the FATF announced new research into the potential unintended consequences of incorrect implementation of the FATF standards and recommendations. FATF identified four areas of concern: de-risking,

An inclusive digital identity platform in the Pacific Islands: country-level diagnostics
Digital Transformation & Data

An inclusive digital identity platform in the Pacific Islands

Digital identity is increasingly becoming the key enabler of digital inclusion across the globe. We conducted three country diagnostic studies to understand and assess the use cases and ecosystem requirements for a digital identity (ID) platform in the Pacific Island countries of Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. This research

Africa: New toolkit may unlock access to financial services
Financial Integrity & Identity

Africa: New toolkit may unlock access to financial services

Hundreds of millions of people globally remain excluded from formal financial services to meet their needs in an affordable way. According to Findex (2017), 17% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa report not having a financial account because they cannot produce identity documents that banks are requesting as part of their

Inclusive compliance models
Financial Integrity & Identity

Inclusive AML-CFT models in Africa: Lessons from six financial service providers

This study set out to develop and apply inclusive compliance models in anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism (AML-CFT) to assist country and institutional stakeholders in achieving inclusive integrity outcomes. An inclusive compliance model is a compliance approach that minimises the cost of compliance while still adequately managing