Key findings from Advancing Fair Competition for Inclusive Digital Finance: Insights from Emerging Markets, a new publication from AFI’s Digital Financial Services Working Group, were shared at a webinar (available to watch below) on 27 November. 

“Digital technologies present complex new challenges for regulators, who must strike a balance between creating an enabling environment for competition, and ensuring financial stability, integrity, and consumer protection,” said AFI Chief Executive Officer, Dr Alfred Hannig.  

“Our report reveals that measures which lower barriers to entry, encourage innovation, and expand consumer choice are functioning effectively as competition enablers. Regulators are also discovering that promoting fair competition is compatible with, and indeed serves to advance, their existing mandates.”  

The report, which examines experiences from Kenya, India, South Africa, Tanzania, Brazil and other jurisdictions, concludes that achieving competitive and inclusive digital financial services will require regulators across relevant sectors to collaborate effectively, implement pro-competition policies decisively, and maintain a culture of continuous learning, adaptation, and proactive supervision. 

AFI’s Competition Enablers Knowledge Exchange, launched in partnership with UNCDF and supported by the Gates Foundation, brings together regulators, policymakers, and experts to promote healthy competition in financial services, and to assist AFI members to address competition imbalances and develop effective policies.