Page 26 - FIGI - Use of telecommunications data for digital financial inclusion

21 Mobile Insurance Regulation at 25.
22 G20 High-Level Policy Guidelines on Digital Financial Inclusion for Youth, Women and SMEs featured policy option
3.4 (p25), to “Improve availability and accuracy of SME information, expand credit information sharing, and enable
responsible cross-border data exchanges.”
23 The form of KYC information may also vary across sectors. These may also unwittingly present barriers to greater
inclusion. Digital identification technology, including biometric identification cards is critical (lack of government-issued
IDs are a significant barrier to financial inclusion where present, such as Sub-Saharan Africa). Indeed, for traditional
bank accounts, a government-issued ID might not be enough, to open an account. Financial institutions will often
require customers to provide proof of local residence by showing, for example, a utility bill. These challenges are widely
recognized and being addressed through new comprehensive national digital identification legal frameworks.
24 As noted above, the M-PESA partnership is explicitly linked to MSISDN, which are conventionally known as mobile
telephone numbers. However, mobile subscriptions have a high turnover rate, and mobile numbers are recycled by
operators after they have been dormant for a prescribed period. However, credit accounts tied to MSISDNs have
followed phone numbers instead of subscribers. In Africa, new Safaricom subscribers have received collection texts for
collection of unpaid debts by the previous user of their phone number.

24 Use of telecommunications data for digital financial inclusion