Page 18 - ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services – Interoperability

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Interoperability

only structured and coordinated document providing an overall framework and roadmap for retail payment
system development.

As with a broad payments reform strategy, a NFIS helps stakeholders to publicize their commitments in relation
to inclusion objectives, clarify roles and coordinate actions.

3.3 Vision statement and policy objectives for DFS

Often, national retail payments strategies, national retail payments policy frameworks and/or NFIS include an
explicit “vision”. Envisioning the desired state of the retail payments system assists in catalyzing action and
serves as a reference point for all future endeavors.

A vision should be able to answer the question “What would a successful implementation of the underlying
reforms to the retail payments system achieve?”

The desired state of retail payments systems might vary from country to country depending on a variety of
factors. In general, however, a vision for an enhanced retail payments system includes dimensions such as:

i) The desired level of penetration of electronic payment mechanisms;
ii) Reduction of the cost of retail payments to the society;
iii) The payment instruments and services that are able to meet the payment needs of individuals and
businesses, including base-of-pyramid individuals and micro and small enterprises;
iv) Improving the accessibility (e.g. proximity) of financial services;
v) achieving appropriate levels of customer satisfaction.

For example, Tanzania’s National Financial Inclusion Framework sets forth as its vision the following: “All
Tanzanians regularly use financial services and payment infrastructures to manage cash flows and mitigate
shocks. These are delivered by formal providers through a range of appropriate services and infrastructure,
with dignity and fairness”.
At the global level, the World Bank Group’s vision for Universal Financial Access is that “By 2020, adults globally
have access to an account or electronic instrument to store money, and send and receive payments as the basic
building block to manage their financial lives.”
As mentioned earlier, development of DFS is often regarded as one of the critical tools for the achievement of
financial inclusion objectives. Hence, some countries may wish to develop (or may have already developed)
specific policy objectives in connection with DFS (and/or for other key mechanisms that will assist in the
achievement of the high-level objectives). This may be useful for a number of reasons. In particular, achieving
the overall vision for the national retail payments system will be extremely difficult without ensuring each of
the tools, mechanisms and/or actions identified as critical are aligned to the general guiding objectives.

In this context, policy objectives for DFS should not aim at specifying the way in which DFS should be developed
but should rather emphasize the way in which DFS is expected to assist in achieving the higher-level objectives
for retail payments development in general and financial inclusion in particular. Still, in some cases as part of
the policy objectives it may be useful to discuss the broad means through with DFS could have an even greater
impact (e.g. by achieving interoperability) and include general statements on the desirable course(s) of action
for the industry in this regard, and if needed also potential actions from regulators.

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