Deputy Governor Maive Rute of Estonia’s central bank, Eesti Pank, met with AFI Executive Director Dr. Alfred Hannig on 10 February in Tallinn to discuss cooperation and technical knowledge exchange within the framework of AFI’s Developed-Developing Country Policy Peer Learning platform.

Topics of mutual interest for further exploration included e-governance, real-time economic modeling, mobile money, financial literacy, anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism, cybersecurity, inclusive green finance and the digital transformation of the banking sector.

The deputy governor expressed appreciation for AFI’s bottom-up approach to driving policy innovation and showed recognition for the flexibility and member-driven nature of the network, recognizing the mutual learning benefits of a potential collaboration with AFI.

“Eesti Bank possesses unique expertise in several areas of high policy priority for AFI members,” said Dr. Hannig. “We look forward to learning from Estonia’s experience and also sharing the collective learning from the AFI network, which will support future policy innovation in Estonia and in members markets.”

AFI engages with financial institutions from developed countries within its Developed-Developing Country Peer Learning Workstream to share and expand its knowledge on convergent topics while also highlighting the successes, best practices and policy lessons of its members beyond the network.

Through this innovative platform, AFI engaged in the first of its kind peer exchange between regulators from developing and developed countries at a Global Dialogue on Inclusive FinTech in September 2019. Co-hosted with the Czech National Bank, AFI’s Global Dialogue helped advance discussions on global topics that require novel approaches as well as enhance cooperation and regulatory capacity to devise effective and balanced risk mitigation approaches.