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Areas of workCenfri is interested in all areas of the financial sector relevant to low-income households. Currently our areas of research include: micro-insurance, health insurance, AML/CFT, new technology in distribution and remittances:
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The Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion (Cenfri) is a non-profit think tank based in Cape Town and operates in collaboration with universities in the region. Cenfri's mission is to support financial sector development and financial inclusion through facilitating better regulation and market provision of financial services. We do this by conducting research, providing advice and developing capacity building programmes for regulators, market players and other parties operating in the low-income market.
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Latest Publications
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Standards Setting Bodies (SSBs) and Financial Inclusion (2011)
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The Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) commissioned a study to investigate the challenges and opportunities to financial inclusion faced by five different developing countries in applying international standards as set by five main Standards setting bodies (SSBs). The countries covered in the study were Brazil, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines and South Africa while the SSBs considered include the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision (BCBS), the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Committee on Payments and Settlement Systems (CPSS), the International Association for Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and the International Association for Deposit Insurance (IADI). The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), on behalf of the GPFI, contracted Cenfri to produce three of the five case studies (South Africa, Kenya and Brazil). In addition, Cenfri was responsible for the drafting of a document that draws together the impacts of the SSBs and their standards in the five countries, as well as how regulators in the five countries are choosing to respond to the SSBs and their standards in order to create room for financial inclusion.
Below we provide links to the above documents on the GPFI website:
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Review of Mzansi and Zimele product standards (2011)
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Insurance usage in South Africa has for a long time been out of reach of the majority of the low-income population. For instance, in 2004, the FinScope survey of financial services usage reported that only 13% of the country’s low-income population (in South Africa, this income category is referred to as LSM 1 - 5) had at least one long-term insurance product. For the short-term side, the usage figure for the same income category was estimated at less than 1%. To address this and as a consequence of the Financial Sector Charter, the insurance industry embarked on a set of initiatives whose aim was to increase insurance usage among the low-income black population in South Africa. A key aspect of the initiative was the development and implementation of voluntary product standards that would ensure the delivery of appropriate products that met the specific insurance needs of LSM 1 – 5. To this end, the Mzansi and Zimele product standards were launched in 2006 and 2007 respectively by the short-term and long-term insurance industries. In addition, the Association of Collective Investments also embarked on a similar initiative to increase the level savings in the low-income space through the development of the Fundisa education savings product. This study, therefore, aims to review the performance of these industry initiatives in enhancing access to insurance and savings products within the low-income population in South Africa. This project was funded by the South Africa Insurance Association (SAIA), Old Mutual and the FinMark Trust.
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Funeral insurance (2011)
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Cenfri prepared a paper on funeral insurance as input to the forthcoming second edition of the Microinsurance Compendium. It considers the demand for funeral insurance and the unique supply and distribution characteristics thereof in a number of countries, as well as the consumer vulnerabilities typically related to funeral insurance and how it can be overcome. The paper has also been published as ILO Microinsurance Innovation Facility Microinsurance Paper no. 10.
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Opportunities for insurance inclusion in Nigeria (2011)
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Cenfri was commissioned by Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA) to explore the potential in the Nigerian insurance market using data from the EFInA Access to Financial (A2F) Services in Nigeria 2008 and 2010 survey. The study aims to demonstrate the market opportunities to insurance companies and other market practitioners.
Cenfri staff presented findings of this study at EFInA's Innovation Forum in Lagos, 22 September 2011.
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Conservative compliance behaviour (2011)
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Cenfri managed a FinMark Trust funded study to investigate the reasons for the apparent lack of universal response by financial insitutions to the flexibility allowed by South Africa's anti-money laundering (AML) and combating of terrorist financing (CFT) regulatory requirements in relation to low-risk clients.
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Swaziland microinsurance review (2011)
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Cenfri was commissioned by the insurance regulator in Swaziland, the Registrar of Insurance and Retirement Funds (RIRF), to conduct a demand, supply and regulatory study for the potential of microinsurance development in the country. The study forms part of a series of Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) studies that assess the potential for microinsurance development across many developing and emerging economies.
The findings of the study were presented at a stakeholder workshop in Manzini, Swaziland on 22ndJune 2011.
The diagnostic included focus group discussion facilitated by Corporate Research Consulting (CRC) with funded from the FinMark Trust.
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Update on microinsurance innovation in Brazil (2011)
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These case studies on microinsurance innovation in Brazil forms part of a series of case studies on alternative, innovative microinsurance distribution models prepared for the International Labour Organization’s Microinsurance Innovation Facility. These case studies are focused on retailer, utility and telecomunications distribution of microinsurance. The first case study covers the partnerships between Mapfre, an insurance company, and Casas Bahia and Vivo, a white-label goods retailer company and mobile phone operator. The second case study covers two partnerships, brokered by AON Affinity Brokers, between QBE and Brasil Telecom and ACE and utility company AES Eletropaulo.
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Update on microinsurance innovation in Colombia (2011)
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This case study on microinsurance innovation in Colombia forms part of a series of case studies on alternative, innovative microinsurance distribution models prepared for the International Labour Organization’s Microinsurance Innovation Facility. The case study covers three channels, namely the partnership between Codensa, an electricity utility company, and the insurance company Mapfre; the model developed by the Carrefour supermarket chain with insurer Colseguros; and the partnership between the gas utility company Gas Natural and the insurance companies Chartis and Alico.