The DFSO Publications sections provides an ongoing collection of relevant DFS commentaries, policy documents and publications.
Digital Financial Services (DFS) – also known as ‘mobile money’ due to the use of mobile phones as the primary access mechanism to basic financial
This paper addresses how to develop and undertake a strategy towards a model cybersecurity risk management approach. We describe within a potential solution – an actionable risk management framework for cybersecurity – which accounts for the presence of several significantly different maturity levels of entities found within the DFS ecosystem.
Development of an Actionable Cybersecurity Risk Management Framework for Digital Financial Services in the Developing World: Overall Approach
A successful innovation in addressing the provision of basic financial services and at relatively low cost serving financial inclusion goals is kno
A successful innovation in addressing the provision of basic financial services and at relatively low cost serving financial inclusion goals is known Digital Financial Services (DFS). It mimics the basic transactional – and mostly non-credit - capabilities of bank accounts, but is provided by banks as well as non-banks such as mobile network operators (MNOs) and third parties known as Digital Financial Services Providers (DFSPs). Access to DFS is (primarily) via low-cost mobile phones, and is sometimes also termed ‘mobile money’ and ‘mobile financial services’ (MFS).
This paper explores how issues and malfeasances relating to cybersecurity and cyber fraud differ based on gender, primarily focusing on women in re
The emergence into the public discourse in 2009 of the novel peer-to-peer Bitcoin crypto-currency phenomenon caught many regulators unawares. We now know that Bitcoin and its underlying ‘blockchain’ technology represented a transformational vanguard of a new ‘trustless’ method of sharing data and processes and contracting in a decentralized, traceable and secure manner and, in many cases, without the need for intermediaries. The family of blockchains and its analogues are now known as distributed ledger technologies (DLTs).
This study pieces these disparate – fintech, banking, big data - strands together to identify and analyze regulatory models available for catalyzing fintech, fintechs and regtech, including the potential need for ancillary regulation that would be a touch-point of both regtech and fintech ecosystems to close any potential regulatory gaps and to ensure regulatory certainty in the use of technologies and the surfeit of data powering both fintechs and regtech.
This study examines and unpacks the concept of ‘de-risking,’ a term now entrenched in the financial ecosystem lexicon to describe the increasing trend of major financial entities refusing to provide services to mostly smaller financial entities in a number of jurisdictions around the world, ostensibly because of regulatory compliance and money laundering risks potentially associated with such interactions.
This report is the second of a two-part study on the phenomenon of de-risking, or what we believe is more aptly described as ‘refusal to supply ser
A stylized ‘crypto-asset’ regulatory framework (‘Framework’) is presented and described below. It is designed to capture the regulatory permutations and implications of the most prevalent and evolving forms of tradable value created through the use of evolving cryptographically-based (‘crypto’) schemes, as well as their stylized position in a financial ecosystem. The most prevalent of these value-based schemes are based on what is now known as distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), with the main type of DLT in use known as ‘blockchain’ technology.
Digital Financial Services (DFS) is a relatively recent mobile-centric financial inclusion innovation in developing. Using ubiquitous mobile phones as the means of service access (primarily through 2G narrowband services, with broadband 3G and 4G potentially available), DFS provides the unbanked and underserved - many of whom live in rural areas - with access to basic financial services provided by banks and nonbanks such as mobile network operators and third party DFS providers (DFSPs).
We review the emergence of a novel regulatory innovation called a ‘regulatory sandbox,’ designed to incubate innovation in the financial sector in a relaxed, but safeguarded regulatory environment. It also provides a symbiotic environment for innovators to test new technologies and for regulators to understand their implications for the financial sector and consumer protection. We assess that for these countries, establishing thematic regulatory sandboxes which focus on specific national financial and developmental priorities - such as remittances - rather than spanning multiple national agendas may be preferred as a more efficient use of scarce resources.
This study looks generally at how regtech is evolving globally and more specifically at how central banks in developing countries are contemplating the use of regtech, the potential use cases, and any impact on financial inclusion.
This Focus Note reviews the status of the financial ecosystem and the shift from a restrictive to an enabling environment, primarily focusing on current supporting policies, laws, regulations and governmental initiatives.
This focus note describes the state of DFS use in humanitarian crises responses, available DFS solutions, and strategies to achieve both humanitarian and financial inclusion goals and common barriers to address for successful deployment.
Overall, the purpose of the paper is to provide a fresh perspective on the role of the NTA in relation to the success and growth of DFS and to systemize the understanding of the role of NTAs within the context of DFS.
This brief primer on DFS expands on these issues and demonstrates how technological, regulatory and commercial components interact to form the DFS ecosystem.
This study is part of a series by the author on the role of the primary regulators in the DFS ecosystem, intended to systemize each of their roles.
The purpose of this study is to provide a fresh perspective specifically on the role of regulators who have competition-related competencies over some or all of the components of DFS, for example the financial and telecommunications components.
This Focus Note discusses current implementations of eIDs and eKYC and its impact on, access to and provision of DFS.
A model memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the central bank and telecommunications regulatory authority of an individual jurisdiction.
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