Get ready! The Czech National Bank (CNB) and AFI are co-hosting a closed-door financial technology (FinTech) peer exchange program for regulators in Prague on September 26–27, 2019. The meeting is part of the systematic global dialogue among peers from developing and emerging countries, as well as developed economies.

The first of its kind following the AFI network’s endorsement of the Sochi Accord on FinTech for Financial Inclusion, the global dialogue aims to showcase practical policy and regulatory approaches, as well as FinTech solutions. The meeting will also highlight key policy lessons to advance FinTech for inclusive finance and provide a platform for the continued exchange of ideas on converging topics.

During his opening remarks at the recent 2019 AFI Global Policy Forum, AFI Executive Director Dr. Alfred Hannig emphasized FinTech’s potential to provide innovative solutions for a wide range of financial inclusion hurdles.

“As technology is moving even faster, we are witnessing a global convergence of policy and regulatory solutions in the financial inclusion and the FinTech space,” AFI Executive Director Dr. Alfred Hannig said at the recently held 2019 AFI Global Policy Forum in Kigali Rwanda.

“In view of the technological convergence, we are convinced that global learning will help to address local challenges, which will ensure that no one will be left behind”, Dr. Hannig underlined.

Over 80 participants are expected to take part and cover key global convergence topics, including how to create an enabling FinTech ecosystem, financial capability and wellbeing, increasing digitalization and its implications on data protection and privacy. Senior technical staff will showcase their international experiences in FinTech development, along with implementation of innovative and proportionate regulatory approaches.

Speakers and panelists will feature a mix of AFI member institutions, European regulators and private sector FinTech firms. For example, the digital banking innovations session will feature participants from the European Banking Federation, Banco Central de la República Argentina, European Central Bank and Spendee.

Central bank officials from regulatory and policymaking institutions from countries within the AFI network will include Argentina, Armenia, China, Kazakhstan, Kenya and Thailand. Among non-members will be financial regulators from Europe, such as the Estonia, Finland, Luxembourg and Spain, as well as private sector players, international organizations and research institutions.

Participants will attend practical discussions, ideations and practical simulations of key regulatory and supervisory solutions. Among its main outcomes will be the development of key policy takeaways that will form concrete follow-up actions for fostering intellectual partnerships among financial regulators from diverse jurisdictions. These policy lessons will be adopted in the network to advance in-country implementation.

This event has been partly funded with UK aid from the UK government and supported by other AFI funding partners.