Page 12 - ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services – Executive Summary

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Executive summary

1 Creating an Enabling DFS Ecosystem

The ITU Focus Group on DFS (hereinafter, “ITU FG DFS” or “Focus Group”) was established as a multiparty
consultative body for fostering the development of safe, enabling DFS ecosystems. The overall objectives of
the Focus Group were to: (i) increase and formalize the collaboration between financial and telecommunication
authorities with respect to DFS; (ii) identify key issues limiting the development of safe, enabling DFS ecosystems;
(iii) analyse how these issues have been addressed in practice and exchange information on best practices; and
(iv) develop policy recommendations for authorities and other stakeholders on how to approach these issues
in their countries. The Focus Group brought together financial and telecommunication authorities, private-
sector stakeholders, consumer advocates, DFS technical experts, development partners, and other key DFS
stakeholders to collaboratively explore these issues and develop consensus recommendations.

To achieve these objectives, the Focus Group established four working groups to study the DFS environment.
The four working groups addressed the following sub-topics: (i) The DFS Ecosystem (see Figure 1); (ii) Consumer
Experience and Protection; (iii) Technology, Innovation and Competition; and (iv) Interoperability. Each working
group produced a series of reports and developed a set of recommendations (see Annex 1), all of which were
approved by the broader focus group.

Research focused on understanding the roles, priorities, and challenges key stakeholders are facing in
the DFS ecosystem. Key stakeholders discussed in the reports and recommendations include public-sector
stakeholders (enabling environment), consumers (demand side), and DFS providers (supply side). For each
stakeholder group, the Focus Group: (i) identified relevant actors; (ii) discussed key needs and/or challenges
faced by the group; and (iii) offered solutions for meeting these needs and addressing these challenges.

Figure 1 – The DFS ecosystem

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