Page 79 - ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services – Recommendations

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Recommendations

Title of recommendation Requirements for onboarding and training of agents
Working Group Consumer Experience and Protection

Theme Agents
Audience for recommendation Regulators

Regulators should require that DFS providers: Conduct adequate compulsory onboarding and ongoing training
of agents; require agents to display relevant information for consumers, such as prices and fees, in a visible
manner; provide a toll free complaints channel for agents to contact the DFS provider; conduct regular monitor-
ing of agents to ensure they offer safe and reliable services and comply with all relevant operational, legal, and
conduct requirements; and maintain an adequate framework for agent liquidity and float management.

DFS providers should carefully select and onboard agents, to ensure understanding of their policies and
processes, and should provide on-going training for reinforcement of these policies and processes. The GSMA
Code of Conduct for Mobile Money Providers states that providers shall “screen, train, and monitor staff
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[and] agents…to ensure that they offer safe and reliable services and comply with all relevant operational and
legal requirements.”
DFS providers should provide appropriate training to agents and ensure that their authorized agents act in the
best interest of consumers. Numerous references point to this recommendation including: The G20 , World
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Bank Global Practices , AFI , and The Smart Campaign . Training should include guidelines on impermissible
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conduct with respect to customers, including integrity and non-discrimination, as well as issues of complaints
handling and fraud detection. Bangladesh, Brazil, DRC, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and
Zambia have regulations that mandate training for agents. For example, Kenya and Nigeria’s central banks
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direct that agents have to be trained on proper identification of customers, customer service, confidentiality of
information, cash security, record keeping, and financial education. Peru requires training on “identification
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of and service to clients, confidentiality, and banking secrecy”, while Uganda mandates training on how to
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receive complaints and handle their resolution and escalation.
Regulators should mandate that providers require their agents to clearly display all prices and fees for DFS
services at their agent location. Providers should also require agents to provide full, transparent, and relevant
information about products and services through other means, such as verbally. Agents should also be required
to provide clients with information about the client’s rights and responsibilities, as well as about mechanisms
for redress. As a reference point, mystery shopping conducted by the ITU showed that only 66 per cent of
agents visited in Zambia had fee charts displayed, and only a fifth had printed brochures that clients could take
with them. In addition, when quoting fees verbally, more agents quoted incorrect fees than quoted correct
fees. This indicates the need for strict disclosure and training requirements to ensure customers receive
needed, accurate information.

30 The World Bank, Good Practices for Financial Consumer Protection (2012) http:// siteresources. worldbank. org/
EXTFINANCIALSECTOR/ Resources/ Good_ Practices_ for_ Financial_ CP. pdf
31 The Smart Campaign Client Protection Certification Standards (2016) http:// www. smartcampaign. org/ storage/ documents/
Standards_ 2. 0_ English_ Final. pdf
32 Guideline on Agent Banking – CBK/PG/15 (2012) http:// www. bu. edu/ bucflp/ files/ 2012/ 01/ Guideline- on- Agent- Banking-
CBKPG15. pdf
33 Central Bank of Nigeria, Guidelines for the Regulation of Agent Banking and Agent Banking Relationships in Nigeria (2013) http://
www. cbn. gov. ng/ Out/ 2013/ CCD/ GUIDELINES%20 FOR%20 THE%20 REGULATION%20 OF%20 AGENT%20 BANKING%20 AND%20
AGENT%20 BANKING%20 RELATIONSHIPS%20 IN%20 NIGERIA. pdf
34 Resolución S.B.S. Nº 6285, El Superintendente de Banca, Seguros y, Administradoras Privadas de Fondos de Pensiones (2013)
https:// intranet2. sbs. gob. pe/ intranet/ INT_ CN/ DV_ INT_ CN/ 714/ v1. 0/ Adjuntos/ 6285- 2013. r. pdf

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