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Welcome to the Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion
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The Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion (Cenfri) is a non-profit thinktank based in Cape Town and operating 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. Our focus areas currently are microinsurance, health financing and insurance, AML/CFT, retail payment systems and money transfers. Cenfri is a non-profit (Section 21) company registered in South Africa and was established with support from the FinMark Trust (www.finmark.org.za) |
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The role of the cell captives mechanism in developing the microinsurance landscape in South Africa (2010) |
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The cell captive insurance vehicle may be a convenient vehicle for providing insurance related services to the lower income market. It may also be a stepping stone for new entities wishing to enter the insurance market with the eventual goal of becoming a fully fledged insurer. Cenfri, on behalf of the FinMark Trust, commissioned Alchemy Consulting to to conduct a review of the cell captive mechanism and the potential role that it could play to support the development of the microinsurance market in South Africa. The objectives were: · - to set out the cell captive insurance mechanism currently used in the long and short term insurance industry in South Africa;
- to report on how cell captives are being used for the provision of low cost insurance solutions to the low-income market; ·
- to identify risks and opportunities for the future use of cell captives in the South African insurance landscape; ·
- to review the need for cell captive regulation and to serve as an information base to inform regulation.
Click here to download the document (PDF: 478KB) |
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Global financial leaders tackle the challenge of creating inclusive financial systems (2010) |
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New technologies such as mobile phones are transforming the landscape of retail financial services. New, non-financial services players such as mobile phone operators are entering the payment service business and extending access to financial services to people not previously reached by banks. There has been much growth of mobile-based financial services globally in recent years. South Africa itself has seen a recent increase of activity in this space with the introduction of new models such as FNB eWallet and M-PESA (Vodacom and Nedbank). Mobile financial services have the potential to reach millions of unserved people, but also expose financial sectors and payment systems to new risks. Existing regulations and approaches to financial sector supervision do not yet fully address these risks. To meet the growing need for appropriate regulation of mobile financial services, the Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion (Cenfri) and USB Executive Development (USB-ED), the public executive development and training company of the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB), will host a seminar on the regulatory challenges of “mobile money” for thirty five developing country financial sector regulators. |
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Reviewing the regulatory framework for money transfers in South Africa (2010) |
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As economic hub of the region, South Africa attracts a large number of migrant workers from neighbouring countries, many of them without the necessary documentation and work permits. Regardless of their status, migrants send money home to families that are often dependent on these remittances for survival. Though the majority of South Africans are now banked, the SADC cross-border remittances economy remains largely informal. Informal remittances are not only risky and often expensive for the senders, but undocumented currency outflows on which no money laundering control can be exercised also present risk to the financial system. Click here to download the full document (PDF:851KB) |
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Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) Launch (Rio, 2009) |
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The groundbreaking A2ii was launched at the annual International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) conference in Rio de Janeiro on 22 October 2009.  Cenfri, as the manager of the microinsurance theme area for Finmark Trust, has played a key role in catalysing the Access to Insurance Initiative. The Cenfri team managed and supported the delivery of five country studies and developed the synthesis analysis that has formed the basis and motivation for the setting up of the A2ii. Click here to download the official media release (PDF:182.09KB) Click here to download A2II factsheet (PDF:1.13MB) Click here to download the presentation Cenfri made on microinsurance at the opening plenary of the IAIS conference |
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Towards a strategy for microinsurance development in Zambia: Market and regulatory analysis (2009) |
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Study tour of South African microinsurance sector (March 2009) |
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Cenfri actively seeks to facilitate South-South dialogue based on the financial inclusion research that we are doing. This type of information sharing and collaboration is critical to support development amongst countries pioneering the way on financial sector development and financial inclusion. |
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Update on microinsurance innovation in South Africa (2010) |
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South Africa has one of the most innovative insurance markets in the world. It is also considered one of the leading microinsurance jurisdictions. Commercial insurers have reached significant penetration in the low-income market, albeit largely through funeral and credit life insurance. The FinMark Trust therefore commissioned Cenfri to provide an update on innovative micoinsurance models and products and the broad lessons emanating from their innovation experiences. Cenfri produced a synthesis note, considers the cross-cutting lessons which can be drawn from the above four case studies’ successes and failures. Click here to download the synthesis note (PDF 1.63MB). |
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With Finance Forward, Cenfri takes a wide-angle view of the forces shaping inclusive financial services in Africa. In this environmental scanning document, we present a snapshot of important ideas emerging in the business, economic, social, technological, physical and political spheres during the second quarter of 2010. Drawn from a robust stream of periodicals, Finance Forward encourages a broad awareness of the systemic and overlapping background forces shaping the future of inclusive financial services. Finance Forward identifies four major themes and follows them through several interconnected environments and issues Click here to download the full document (PDF, 2.7Mb). Author: Joel Carlman |
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Microinsurance in Brazil: Opportunities for market development (2009) |
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Cenfri has been commissioned by the Brazilian National School for Insurance (Funenseg) and the insurance industry association (CNSeg) to do a study to assess the current and potential microinsurance market in Brazil, the drivers of market development and the opportunities and challenges for microinsurance expansion. This study will serve as input to the microinsurance consultative commission– a joint process between the regulator, other government departments and private sector to work towards a microinsurance regulatory framework. It will also provide inputs on regulatory and industry strategy going forward, including recommendations to SUSEP, the insurance supervisor, on the nature of a possible microinsurance regulatory framework. The preliminary results of the analysis were presented at a stakeholder workshop in Rio de Janeiro on 2 December 2009 . Click here to download the presentation (PDF: 873KB) Click here to download final report (PDF: 2.8MB) |
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Making health insurance work for the low-income market in South Africa (2009) |
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This study, conducted by Elixir Business Consulting and Fifth Quandrant, was funded by the Finmark Trust and managed by the Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion (Cenfri). The final report presents the findings and conclusions of a study that identifies the main drivers of health insurance costs in South Africa, as well as strategies that can be used to reduce these costs, to support the inclusion of low-income earners. Click here to download final report (PDF: 2.35MB) Click here to download media release (PDF: 371KB) Click here to view a Mail&Guardian article based on this study (PDF:120.2KB) |
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Zimbabwe Remittance Corridor (July 2009) |
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This study, undertaken by Saul Kerzner, was commissioned by the Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion (Cenfri), on behalf of the FinMark Trust, to sketch a picture of the remittances landscape in the Johannesburg-Zimbabwe corridor. The aim was to build an understanding of the dynamics of remittances sent to Zimbabwe and the drivers of change, and to gauge the scope for and barriers to the formal intermediation of remittances. Click here to download full report (PDF:2.31 MB) |
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Making insurance markets work for the poor: Policy, regulation and supervision (2008) |
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This document presents the synthesis findings from of a five-country (Colombia, India, Philippines, South Africa and Uganda) case study on the role of regulation in the development of microinsurance markets. Members of Cenfri managed the project and supported the development of the case studies as part of a Genesis Analytics team on behalf of the FinMark Trust. We participated directly in the development of the South African and Ugandan case studies. Click here to download the synthesis document: (PDF: 2MB) Click here to download the executive summary and guidlines: (PDF: 2.7MB) Click here to download thematic focus notes in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish |
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Copyright © 2010 Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion. All Rights Reserved.
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Cenfri, in collaboration with Yoseph Aseffa, has recently completed a study commissioned by the ILO/UNCDF and FinMark Trust to consider the opportunities and challenges to microinsurance development in Zambia. 