Balancing Growth with Responsible Digital Finance to Ensure Consumer Protection

The digitization of financial services has increased access to and use of these services worldwide, and the use of consumer data to deliver financial services is significantly contributing to this success. However, this growth has also led to heightened exposure to various risks, such as fraud and phishing, misuse of consumer data, lending distress, lack of pricing transparency, and inadequate complaints handling and redress mechanisms. This session will explore these issues through evidence-based presentations and a panel discussion, focusing on the role of technology in mitigating these risks and enhancing consumer-centric product design.

We will describe the growing complexity of the digital finance ecosystem as it expands. Through a brief IPA-CGAP presentation, we will discuss how we collect data on emerging opportunities and challenges using various data sources, including national DFS surveys from CGAP and IPA, social media, complaints data, transaction data, and mystery shopping. Additionally, we will present evidence of key risks associated with digital financial services. Following the presentation, a panel representing different actors from the digital finance ecosystem will discuss the importance of evidence and data collection to elaborate collaborative solutions that can foster more responsible digital finance ecosystems.