AFI Resource Center

AFI Resource Center

AFI member institutions develop, publish and implement high-level policy documents in various fields of financial inclusion, including consumer protection, digital financial services, financial inclusion data, national financial inclusion strategy, global standard proportionality, inclusive green finance and SME finance. This resource center page presents a non-exhaustive list of examples of financial inclusion policy documents in the AFI network and beyond.

For detailed data analysis, you may connect to the AFI Data Portal (ADP), a unique integrated global database of financial inclusion policies, regulations, and outcomes, built by policymakers for policymakers and the public.

The importance of financial education, its role as a complement to financial inclusion and consumer protection policies, and its contribution to financial stability has led many countries to develop a national financial education strategy (NFES). Financial education is seen as a tool to increase financial literacy and AFI defines financial education as “a process of providing people with the knowledge, skills, attitude, and exposure through access to relevant objective information, and training to enable them to make informed financial decisions and take actions appropriate to their circumstances.”

Financial consumer protection refers to policies and practices designed to promote stable and inclusive financial services via two interconnected pillars: 1) empowering consumers to make more informed financial decisions via the provision of information, education and effective avenues for redress, and 2) protecting consumers via effective regulation, supervision and enforcement of market conduct by financial services providers.

Information will be available soon

Information will be available soon

National financial inclusion strategies (NFIS) are developed through broad consultative processes involving, among others, public and private sector stakeholders engaged in financial sector development. The growing number of NFIS across all regions shows the influence of knowledge and peer learning on strategy development. Global trends in financial inclusion strategies include emerging issues such as climate change and marginalized groups. In addition to women, other groups that need to be considered when building national financial inclusion include youth, forcibly displaced persons and people with disabilities.

National Financial Inclusion Strategies

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Regulators in the AFI network have begun responding, often with urgency, with strategies, policies and regulations to mitigate and build resilience to the impacts of climate change in their respective countries. There is an emerging trend in the network to link financial inclusion and climate change on a national strategic level, either in a national financial inclusion strategy (NFIS) of other financial sector strategies.

NFIS with green elements

Other related financial sector strategies

AFI’s 4P framework provides financial regulators with an intuitive was to consider the full range of policy actions they can take for inclusive green finance. All policies under the 4Ps either catalyze financial services for the private sector or use financial infrastructure to deploy finance for climate action.

Promotion

Promotion policies and initiatives prepare the private sector to offer financial services for green projects or related climate action activities to qualifies beneficiaries, for example, through awareness raising, information sharing, capacity building and data collection.

Provision

Provision policies help to ensure financial resources for green projects or related climate action activities are provided for qualified beneficiaries, whether through lending policies, refinancing or other financing schemes.

Protection

Protection policies reduce financial risk by “socializing” potential losses through insurance, credit guarantees, socializing payments or other related risk-sharing mechanisms.

Prevention

Prevention policies aim to avoid undesirable outcomes by lowering financial, social and environmental risks.

AFIs Inclusive Green Finance (IGF) workstream is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), based on a decision of the German Bundestag.

Information will be available soon

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