AFI Executive Director Alfred Hannig delivered the opening remarks at today’s Asia-Pacific Regional Forum of Telecommunication/ICT and Financial Regulators on Digital Financial Inclusion. The forum, organized by the Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission and the International Telecommunication Union with support from the governments of Malaysia and Australia, was held to discuss ongoing activities to ensure the world’s financially excluded are provided with secure, stable and cost effective access to online services, helping to bridge the digital divide and in so doing support financial inclusion efforts.

Mr. Hannig’s speech was preceded by a welcome addresses by Mr. Toh Swee Hoe, Chief Officer, Digital Empowerment of Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, as well as Mr. Ioane Koroivuki, Regional Director, ITU Regional Office for Asia/Pacific.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Hannig stressed that financial inclusion is heavily driven by digital financial services. Mr. Hannig highlighted many issues which have an impact on the delivery of financial services, but are simply not under the control of financial regulators, including security, service quality, consumer protection and pricing. He described the role that e-money and agent banking have been shown to play in increasing financial inclusion and encouraged coordination across the financial inclusion value chain.

“When you look at the greatest success stories in digital finance, it becomes clear that cooperation between financial regulators and telecommunication regulators is fundamental. Collaboration across regulatory domains can result in exponential benefits, especially to the underserved poor, and particularly those in rural areas, who are most impacted by being left on the wrong side of the financial and digital divide—through collaboration we will bridge both,” said Mr. Hannig.

The forum represented another example of the increasing global policy convergence around financial inclusion. Participants explored the clear connections between telecommunication issues, including security, access and stability, as well as the mutually supportive impact they have with digital financial services.  Participants agreed that with the increasing digitization of financial services at all levels, financial inclusion’s overarching and cross-cutting nature makes it one of the main pillars of the overall global development agenda.