15th CEMC & 17th FID Working Group Meetings,
Organized by AFI in collaboration with Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV)
Monday, 5 March, 2018
Merida, Mexico

Opening Remarks by Norbert Mumba, Deputy Executive Director, AFI

Vice President of Regulatory Policy, Mr. Carlos Orta Tejada,

Distinguished Guests,

Ms. Armenuhi Mkrtchyan, Central Bank of Armenia and Chair – Consumer Empowerment & Market Group,

Ms. Laura Ramos, Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV) and Chair – Financial Inclusion Data Working Group,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Hola!

Welcome to the beautiful city of Merida! To our co-host, thank you for the very warm reception and arrangements accorded to us all. It is a great pleasure for me to be here with you all and I am sure that many of you would have noticed how vibrant the city is with a rich Mayan and colonial heritage. An excellent choice of meeting venue which showcases such rich culture and tradition, which is befitting for the first series of working group meetings to take place in 2018 in the AFI network.

Permit me to briefly express my gratitude to the President of the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) and the excellent staff at the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV). We appreciate all your efforts in hosting and organizing these important meetings for the AFI network.

The National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) has been an AFI member since 2009. We are grateful for your strong contribution and we are confident that your membership in AFI will continue to strengthen our Alliance. It is also appropriate to mention that Mexico is the origin of the now globally important Maya Declaration, a global reference point for country commitments on financial inclusion

The AFI working groups represent the heart of the AFI network. The presence of to 100 participants here today reflects the importance you as the owners of AFI attached to these meetings which are a fountain of financial inclusion policy development globally. This week we begin with the trend of having joint Working Group Meetings, starting here in Merida, Mexico where the Consumer Empowerment & Market Conduct and the Financial Inclusion Data working groups are meeting. From 2-6 April the Digital Financial Services and SME Finance working groups will meet in Amman, Jordan followed by the Financial Inclusion Strategy Peer Learning Group and the Global Standards Proportionality working group meeting from 24-27 April in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

The working groups are the content backbone for the AFI network and positioned to support the vision of AFI becoming a policy leadership alliance. As we move forward in the implementation of AFI Phase III strategy in 2018, and as directed by the membership council during the AGM in 2017 in Sharm El Sheikh, the networks focus will be on three main strategic objectives: (a) Issuing Policy Guidance or Models, (b) In-country implementation support and (c) Global Voice.

The Financial Inclusion Data Working Group was the first working group to be framed upon the need to enable a common framework to measure financial inclusion and use data to inform financial inclusion evidence-based policies. More recently, among other efforts performed by this working group, and in the context of the Denarau Action Plan, the FIDWG discussions have become critical in identifying good practices and lessons learned to collect more effectively sex-disaggregated data. Additionally, their focus has also been critical to set specific financial inclusion objectives and measurable targets in both Maya Commitments and national financial inclusion strategies to measure policy progress in a more accurate and timely basis.

With the rapid expansion of technology particularly the rise in fintech solutions and the offerings of services through the digital platforms, financial consumer empowerment anchored on prudent and transparent market conduct must be the corner stone of the financial system in our countries, if the poor are to derive  benefit from our efforts. By increasing access to, and use of, innovative, low-cost financial tools and applications, digital financial services open new opportunities for improving overall levels of financial inclusion. They also bring various new challenges for governments, financial service providers, and consumers.

Disruptive innovations are breaking down barriers between the financial sector and other sectors such as energy, agriculture, education, health care and housing and therefore represent an important driver of inclusive growth. As digital finance continues to advance, with innovative products and delivery channels entering the markets, tools for enforcement of market conduct need to be re-designed to address the new risks. For example, the growing number of new models of digital credit is creating pressure to market conduct regulators in terms of resources for conducting on-site and off-site surveillance for timely identification of consumer risks.

Therefore, for the Consumer Empowerment & Market Conduct working group, your inputs now become ever important to ensure that the policy guidance you provide with the regard to the offering of products and services through the digital platform addresses consumer protection risks and challenges and that there is sufficient and effective disclosure and adequate protection of consumer data.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As AFI enters its 10 year, it is time for reflection on the path we have tread and the way forward. AFI services have evolved in the past ten years – as AFI has expanded, as AFI network members have made significant progress and as the financial inclusion horizon has drastically changed. Much more has to be done but as, AFI Executive Director, Dr Alfred Hannig emphasizes, it is not about the speed that it takes to reach total financial inclusion but the big challenge of sustain the high levels of financial inclusion. “AFI is not worried about the speed of financial inclusion. AFI is much more worried about the quality of financial inclusion.”

AFI reaches out to its members through a diverse range of services – capacity building events, working group meetings, global and regional policy forums and via the AFI data portal. As you are aware all these services focus on six core policy areas and also on emerging topics and are delivered by members in partnership with development partners such IDRC and private sector players such as VISA and Mastercard  . The quality and success of these initiatives rests equally on two pillars – quality content and quality delivery.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Allow me to end by reminding you about the upcoming 2018 AFI Global Policy Forum- the first to ever be held in the Europe & Central Asia region. Under the theme “Innovation, Inclusion and Impact” we are now working closely with Central Bank of Russia to create a milestone event. The GPF will be held from 5-7 September 2017 in Sochi, with the Regional Initiatives and Working Groups meeting set to take place the 3-4 September. We again expect this to be a memorable GPF- and the working groups will play a key role in its success.

On that note, I wish to congratulate the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) and team for hosting these meetings and welcoming us all to this beautiful country. To working group members who are attending the working groups for the first time, I trust that you will find the your participation worthwhile. To the leadership teams of the CEMCWG and FIDWG and member, I wish you all a fruitful and positive deliberations and wish you all a successful week.

Thank you!