CONTEXT

The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) is the world’s leading organization on financial inclusion policy and regulation. The AFI network is made up of central banks, ministries of finance, and other financial policymaking or regulatory institutions from more than 80 countries.

AFI has established seven working groups (WGs) that serve as “communities of practice” for members to explore the specific but interconnected issues of financial inclusion. Through the Digital Financial Services Working Group (DFS WG), AFI provides a platform for capturing, tracking, and sharing information on innovative digital financial services, products, business models and appropriate new policy responses. The DFSWG establishes linkages and provides inputs, where appropriate, to global standardsetting bodies (SSBs) seeking to establish proportionate supervisory approaches. The working group generates knowledge used to strengthen the capacities of ecosystem actors through the publication of toolkits and policy models. This report on the current state of practice of the regulation of digital financial services (DFS) falls within this framework.

This DFS regulatory state of practice report views the status of 81 AFI member countries through the spectrum of five distinct pillars comprised of 33 relevant DFS regulatory indicators, resulting in a total of 2,706 indicator questions. These indicators aim to capture, as far as possible, priority and relevant regulatory topics associated with DFS in AFI member countries. Key policy lessons and regulatory gaps from the research are meant to inform AFI member countries in their designs of policy instruments that will promote digital financial inclusion.