Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) will host seven delegations from across the AFI network at the launch of its second International Week of Financial Inclusion (IWFI) scheduled to be held 19-23 May 2014 in Brasilia.

Representatives from the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Ministère de l’Economie et des finances du Sénégal, the Ministère de l’Economie et des finances du Togo, Banco de Moçambique, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) of India and the Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público de México will all be present for opening ceremonies and to take part in extensive financial inclusion knowledge sharing sessions during this five-day practical and interactive program.

The IWFI, a joint program of BCB and AFI, provides a platform for policymakers to meet and share common experiences, identify policy challenges, and look for opportunities for future financial inclusion projects. The program will examine the following crucial key learning points:

• The role and importance of agent banking in Brazil;
• The specific rules and regulations that can significantly impact the growth of agent banking;
• Supervising agent banking in Brazil:
• Tips and lessons learned;
• Challenges related to agent banking in Brazil;
• Rural credit regulation and supervision;
• Citizen assistance (‘complaints-handling’) and financial services consumer protection; and
• The impact of financial education in enhancing financial inclusion in Brazil.

BCB is currently a well-established regional and global leader in areas such as agent banking and financial education after a long history of overcoming policy challenges and difficulties. Through the IWFI, BCB hopes that the key lessons from its financial inclusion journey can serve as a valuable resource for AFI members exploring similar policy options and will provide a good starting point for a broad polylateral exchange of ideas and lessons from all participants.