Together with Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ), the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) will be hosting the 17th Digital Financial Services (DFS) Working Group and 10th SME Finance (SMEF) Working Group meetings from 2-6 April, 2018 in Amman, Jordan — the second in a series of three working group meetings to be held in the first half of the year.

The five-day event is expected to gather more than 130 participants from DFS and SMEF member countries combined, along with key external stakeholders and partners from around the globe. Kicking off with a FinTech Policy Forum on 5 April, 2018, the week will be followed up by combined sessions, individual working group meetings, field visits, and a full-day technical training on digital payments under the AFI-Public Private Dialogue (PPD) initiative.

In working towards AFI’s aspiration as a policy leadership alliance and the critical role that the working groups play in achieving that goal, the two working groups will come together to meet simultaneously on 3 April, 2018. This convergence will provide members the opportunity to strengthen policy discussions on quality content, deepen capacity amongst members and find synergies on thematic topics between working groups. Through such engagement, the working groups are expected to generate practical thought leadership and regulatory guidance on critical and unresolved policy issues.

About DFS Working Group

The Digital Financial Services (DFS) Working Group aims to create an enabling policy and regulatory environment for transformational DFS at national levels. Working group members strive to develop a shared understanding of the risk profiles of emerging DFS business models, which is essential to designing appropriate regulatory frameworks, and stimulate discussion and learning on new approaches and good practices in DFS regulation by encouraging policymakers to exchange experiences.

About SMEF Working Group

The SME Finance (SMEF) Working Group was created in 2013 with the aim of creating a unique forum for financial policymakers to discuss, innovate and jointly create smart policies that facilitate small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) access to formal financial services, and, particularly, access to finance. The outcomes produced by the SME Finance Working Group are tailored to provide evidence that shed light about different policies solutions, and take the lessons learned from the national implementation of specific direct interventions and programs.