A critical factor in the success of DFS in achieving improved financial inclusion and the resulting improved economic growth is the legal and regulatory environment.

Do some laws create unnecessary barriers to entry for new providers of DFS? Have regulators created an environment wedded to traditional channels for delivering financial services or one which encourages innovation in DFS? Are new users of DFS adequately protected against abuse, deception or loss of savings? What is done to secure the privacy of customers’ personal and sensitive information against misuse and disclosure?

Our research focuses on these and other legal and regulatory issues surrounding the provision and use of DFS. The UNSW Team has worked intensively on these issues since 2013 with the support of two Centre For International Financial Regulation (CIFR)-funded projects (E226 and T025, both concluded in December 2015) and one three-year (2016-2018) Linkage project co-funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the United Nations Capiral Development Fund (UNCDF).

Our Regulatory Handbook (2015) guides regulators in the enabling regulation of DFS.

Our Regulatory Diagnostic Toolkit (RDT) (2018) is a structured analytical framework to support regulators by using a systematic approach to assess, adapt and advance their regulatory regimes for DFS.

For a brief overview of our project - CLICK HERE 

For a full list of our project's outputs - CLICK HERE

For a detailed summary of our project - CLICK HERE