TelecomTV TelecomTV
  • News
  • Videos
  • Channels
  • Events
  • Directory
  • Smart Studio
  • Surveys
  • Debates
  • Perspectives
  • DSP Leaders World Forum
  • DSP Summits
  • Great Telco Debate
    • |
    • Follow
    • |
    • Subscribe
  • |
  • More
  • Webcasts
  • Surveys
  • Debates
  • Perspectives
  • Great Telco Debate
  • |
  • Follow TelecomTV
  • |
    • Subscribe
    • |
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Help
  • Contact
  • Follow TelecomTV
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Help
  • Contact
  • Sign In Register Subscribe
    • Subscribe
    • Sign In
    • Register
  • Search

Tracker

TelecomTV TRACKER

Sourced by TelecomTV's TRACKER platform
from ITU

Tracker

Press Release: ITU tackles financial inclusion for 2 billion people

Via ITU

Sep 16, 2015

ITU focus group on Digital Financial Services hosts telco and financial services regulators from across the globe in Kuala Lumpur

Geneva, 16 September 2015 – Almost a year after its launch, the ITU Focus Group on Digital Financial Services (DFS) for Financial Inclusion is preparing to host its global meeting to discuss how the international telecommunications and financial services communities can work together to tackle one of the world’s most challenging social and economic issues: access to formal financial services by the world’s poorest two billion people.

The Focus Group, incorporating 60 organizations from some 30 countries, aims to bridge the gap between telecommunications and financial services regulators, and the private and public sectors. Representatives from across the DFS ecosystem will pragmatically address some of the major issues currently preventing DFS from serving the unbanked.

Four working groups have been established, led by a balanced composition of regulatory authorities, operators and consumer protection organizations. They are developing a set of operational recommendations, tools and solutions that will fast track policy reform to support numerous developing countries in implementing the financial inclusion strategy and promoting DFS at scale. Initial findings will be discussed in Kuala Lumpur from 30 September to 2 October and at the next meeting in Geneva in December. Final reports are expected to be published late in 2016.

“By leveraging the rapid growth of existing mobile networks and the use of cell phones, the majority of cash transactions can be shifted into digital form,” said Sacha Polverini, Chairman of the Focus Group and Senior Programme Officer for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “Innovative digital payment systems can reduce transaction costs up to 90 per cent, giving financial institutions, mobile network operators and a new set of service providers the ability to create innovative new financial products tailored to the needs of the poor.”

Regulation is a key factor. However, the payment industry has found it challenging to launch and scale services for the unbanked – an issue that affects up to 2 billion people globally, the majority of which are based in India, China and Indonesia. This is because many policy and regulatory environments are not genuinely enabling the organic development of a competitive DFS ecosystem that can reach the poor. In addition, the conversation around DFS has primarily taken place at a national level and between financial service regulators and standard setting bodies.

“Given the important role that mobile can play in addressing DFS, ITU is in a unique position to bring together both telco and financial service regulators and industry from around the world to develop a common international framework that generates better understanding and provides practical solutions” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao.

After Kuala Lumpur the Focus Group will hold its next meeting in Geneva from 15 to 17 December 2015 when in-depth discussions are expected to take place. The meeting in Geneva will be preceded by a one-day workshop on Digital Financial Services and Financial Inclusion.

Related Topics
  • Announcement,
  • Europe,
  • ITU,
  • Media & Entertainment,
  • News,
  • Telco & CSP,
  • Tracker

More Like This

Edge

Globe Telecom signs MoU with Hewlett Packard Enterprise for multi-access edge computing solution trial using 5G

Apr 14, 2021

Cloud Native

Red Hat and NEC collaborate to drive Kubernetes-based 5G adoption

Apr 13, 2021

Digital Platforms & Services

Liberty Latin America selects MATRIXX Software to transform customer experience across the region

Apr 13, 2021

Open RAN

Mavenir and Xilinx collaborate to bring to market Open RAN massive MIMO portfolio

Apr 13, 2021

Digital Platforms & Services

Colt Technology Services embarks on 70-strong recruitment drive

Apr 13, 2021

This content extract was originally sourced from an external website (ITU) and is the copyright of the external website owner. TelecomTV is not responsible for the content of external websites. Legal Notices

Email Newsletters

Stay up to date with the latest industry developments: sign up to receive TelecomTV's top news and videos plus exclusive subscriber-only content direct to your inbox – including our daily news briefing and weekly wrap.

Subscribe

Top Picks

Highlights of our content from across TelecomTV today

22:09

How BSS is evolving to support 5G

40:04

How can DSPs accelerate speed to market for new services?

24:04

Supporting the evolution of service provision at BT

41:32

Edge as a driver of new service revenues

  • TelecomTV
  • Decisive Media

TelecomTV is produced by the team at Decisive Media

Menu
  • News
  • Videos
  • Channels
  • Directory
  • Smart Studio
 
  • Surveys
  • Debates
  • Perspectives
  • Events
  • About Us
Our Brands
  • TelecomTV Tracker
  • TelecomTV Perspectives
  • DSP Summits
  • DSP Leaders World Forum
  • The Great Telco Debate
Get In Touch
info@telecomtv.com
+44 (0) 207 448 1070

Request a Media Pack

Follow
  • © Decisive Media Limited 2021. All rights reserved. All brands and products are the trademarks of their respective holder(s).
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Legal Notices