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:  

• South African case study
• Kenyan case study
• Brazillian case study
• Global standards setting bodies and financial inclusion

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.  

• Click here to download the full study (PDF, 1.15MB)
• Click here to download the workshop presentation (PDF, 1.15MB)

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.  

• Click here to download the paper (PDF: 464 KB)