Page 9 - ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services – Executive Summary

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Executive summary

providers, consumer advocates, DFS technical experts, development partners, and other key DFS stakeholders
to:

1. Increase and formalize the collaboration between financial and telecommunication authorities with
respect to digital financial services;
2. Identify key issues limiting the development of safe, efficient, and enabling DFS ecosystems;

3. Analyze how these issues have been addressed in practice and exchange information on best practices;
and

4. Develop policy recommendations for public- and private-sector stakeholders on how to approach these
issues.

The specific objectives of the ITU FG-DFS were to: 7

1. Identify the technology trends in digital financial services over the coming years and how the role of
various stakeholders in this ecosystem will evolve. This will include identifying underlying frameworks,
new business models and public private partnership arrangements necessary for digital financial services.
2. Establish liaisons and relationships with other organizations which could contribute to the
standardization activities of digital financial services.
3. Describe the ecosystem for digital financial services in developed and developing countries and the
respective roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders in the ecosystem.

4. Identify successful use cases for implementation of secure digital financial services including developing
countries with a particular focus on the benefits for women.

5. Suggest future ITU-T study items and related actions for various ITU-T study groups for example on:
a. Concepts, coverage, vision and use cases of digital financial services.

b. Characteristics and requirements for digital financial services.
c. Architectural framework for digital financial services including security of mobile transactions.
6. In collaboration with ITU-D study the best practices related to policies, regulatory frameworks, consumer
and fraud protection, business models and ecosystems for digital financial services in developed and
developing countries.

7. Work towards the creation of an enabling framework for digital financial services which could be
submitted, through TSAG, for endorsement at the ITU Global Regulators Symposium.

Relation to other relevant work

The work of the ITU FG DFS builds on prior and ongoing work by key international stakeholders. In analyzing
DFS solutions and identifying best practices for facilitating the implementation of safe and enabling DFS on
a global scale, the ITU FG DFS benefited from and expanded upon the work of various other international
stakeholders, including:

• The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) of the Bank for International Settlements
(BIS) and World Bank Group’s (WBG) Report on Payment Aspects of Financial Inclusion (PAFI); 8
• The G20 High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion ;
9
• The G20 High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection ;
10

7 International Telecommunication Union (2014), Terms of Reference of the Focus Group Digital Financial Services
8 Payment Aspects of Financial Inclusion (PAFI), April 2016, https:// www. bis. org/ cpmi/ publ/ d144. htm
9 The G20 High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion https:// www. gpfi. org/ sites/ default/ files/ G20%20 High%20 Level%20
Principles%20 for%20 Digital%20 Financial%20 Inclusion. pdf
10 The G20 High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection, https:// www. oecd. org/ g20/ topics/ financial- sector- reform/
48892010. pdf

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