New collaboration with the Arab Monetary Fund to support Digital Financial Services policymaking

Partnerships

11 Mar

UNCDF Policy Accelerator and the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) are working together to support financial inclusion and digital financial services in the Arab region, as part of our approach to collaborate with a wide range of development partners, as well as a natural extension of our ongoing and planned work in North Africa.

AMF, UNCDF, and CGAP workshop for regulators

T he Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) and UNCDF in collaboration with Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) hosted a “Workshop on Digital Financial Services Regulatory Enablers” on February 14-15, 2022. More than 200 participants registered, representing 70+ institutions in 16 countries.

The workshop sought to support regulators in the Arab region to advance the digital transformation of financial services, in line with the framework that was developed in 2020 under Financial Inclusion for the Arab Region Initiative (FIARI). Experts from the AMF, the UNCDF Policy Accelerator team, and CGAP led sessions on regulatory enablers of DFS, Open Banking, and inclusion, stability, integrity, and protection (I-SIP), among others. The workshop also included presentations from Hakima El Alami (Bank Al-Maghrib in Morocco), Nizar Chaddad (Central Bank of Tunisia), and Ahmed Monir (Central Bank of Egypt), as well as Maha Bahou (Jordan Payments and Clearing Company), who shared their country’s experiences with DFS regulation.

“The collaboration between AMF and UNCDF presents an exciting opportunity to introduce policymakers and regulators in the Arab region to the emerging guidance on enablers of Digital Financial Services,” says Ahmed Dermish, Lead Policy Specialist, UNCDF. “Participants can learn directly from the top experts in the field, while also applying their tools to adopt this guidance more effectively.”

Regulatory building blocks and emerging models

The workshop was split into two half-day sessions that led participants from an introduction to DFS enablers to more specialized sessions presented by subject-matter experts.

Day one focused on the regulatory building blocks that have a decisive impact in creating an inclusive financial ecosystem (see the FIARI digital financial transformation approach and the CGAP Basic DFS Regulatory Enablers), as well as the various policy strategies that have had results in terms of increasing access to financial products. Topics covered included:

The role of non-banking financial institutions
Alternative distribution networks (e.g., agents)
Consumer protection (with a focus on digital use cases)
Risk-management and simplified Customer Due Diligence (CDD)

Day two focused on emerging trends and models related to DFS, as well as a discussion of how financial sector stability, integrity, and consumer protection complement and compete with the financial inclusion agenda. Topics included:

Interoperability and inclusive instant payment systems
Open banking
Data protection and privacy
Inclusion, Stability, Integrity, and Consumer Protection (I-SIP)

This in-depth program would not have been possible without the contribution of CGAP’s policy experts, who led many of the sessions and whose research informed much of its content.

“DFS is constantly evolving and remains of high relevance for policymakers in the Arab region, as financial services are truly being changed by the digital revolution,” shares Habib Attia, Senior Financial Sector Advisor, AMF. “In line with the AMF’s focus on creating an enabling policy and promoting best practices, this collaboration between AMF and UNCDF provides a great opportunity to intensify support to regulators in the Arab region for accelerating policy and regulatory change that will make the environment more conducive for inclusive Digital Financial Services.”