Distribution of financial services is a key constraint to extending financial services to low-income markets. Traditional networks are often costly, cumbersome and intimidating for low-income clients to use. As a result, much attention is currently placed on the development of new technologies (e.g. mobile phones) and business models (e.g. branchless banking) and on creating the regulatory space for these models to develop. This will benefit not only the extension of banking networks, but also the distribution of all other non-bank financial services. Cenfri sees this as a key focus area in support of financial inclusion.

Some of Cenfri's work in this area includes:

• Cenfri staff participated in country policy and regulatory diagnostics undertaken by CGAP to understand the policy and regulatory environment for branchless banking. This work was part of the CGAP Technology Programme’s broader initiative to pioneer new uses of technology to bank the unbanked poor. Cenfri staff led the diagnostic teams in Brazil, the Philippines and South Africa and provided AML/CFT expertise on this project.
• Cenfri’s work in the area of AML/CFT has also sought to support the utilisation of new models and technologies. Cenfri provided AML/CFT expertise in relation to mobile phone banking, and in the development of a regulatory system to support transformation mobile phone banking in the Maldives.
• Cenfri staff led a project to design a set of tools or guidelines to facilitate the implementation of FATF Recommendations in developing countries without unduly impacting on access to financial services. The project involved a cross-country analysis of conditions in Kenya, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan and South Africa. One of the specific considerations was to ensure that AML/CFT regulation does not unnecessarily impede the utilisation of new models and technology.
• Cenfri supported the CGAP Technology Programme team’s strategy for mobile and branchless banking in South Africa, by collecting and analysing data.
• Cenfri planned and facilitated a mobile and branchless banking exposure/study tour to South Africa for seven representatives from the Pakistan Microfinance Network.
• Cenfri, in partnership with Bankable Frontier Associates (BFA), was commissioned by the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) to present a training course on the latest issues and developments in mobile banking. The aim of the course was to provide regulators and policy makers with a practical understanding of the new technologies and business models emerging about mobile money and act as a useful guide on how to diagnose and develop their own framework to incorporate new circumstances.