Identify opportunities for regional harmonisation

Start here if you are ready to learn more about the key areas that make regional harmonisation possible and to conduct an initial assessment of your region.

---

+ 1. How this guide can help

The resources in this guide will walk you through the process of identifying opportunities for regional harmonisation. Each step can be tailored to the needs of your country, your institution, and your policy objectives.

The benefits of DFS are limited without regional harmonisation

Digital financial services (DFS) are at the centre of financial inclusion in many developing countries. But the benefits of DFS are limited if national and regional policies are not aligned.

For regional harmonisation to support financial inclusion, the basic enablers for DFS have to be aligned at a regional level after being adopted and operationalised by member countries. These basic enablers are:

• Nonbank e-money issuance
• Use of agents
• Proportional customer due diligence
• Consumer Protection
• Passporting

For more background on regional harmonisation for DFS, please read our brief.

+ 2. Examples of when to use this guide

This regional harmonisation guide can be helpful if:

• You are looking for opportunities to harmonise your DFS policies with another country.
• You would like to harmonise DFS policies across an entire region.

+ 3. Assess your current market landscape

Sample questions

This tool provides a list of 60 questions to help you structure your market and regulatory assessment. Download the questions (Excel) in English and French.

The questions in the assessment are grouped by enablers of DFS and regional harmonisation, including:

• Nonbank e-money issuance
• Use of agents
• Proportional customer due diligence
• Consumer protection
• Passporting (relevant for regional harmonisation)

Summary template

Download the template (Word) in English or French. Use it to summarise key takeaways by enabler:

• Nonbank e-money issuance
• Use of agents
• Customer due diligence
• Consumer protection
• Passporting

Add any additional thoughts or considerations that may be helpful to refer back to later as you start to compare to peer markets, align with global standards, and finalize policy options. If you are exploring opportunities for regional harmonisation, you can complete this short summary for each target country before considering specific options.

Repeat the same process above with your target country (or countries). You will bring all of your responses together in the next step.

+ 4. Conduct a comparative analysis of your target countries

Bring the results of the individual country analyses together to identify common gaps that need to be addressed so that the member states can collectively meet the standards for an enabling DFS environment at a regional level.

1. Download the worksheet (Excel) in English or in French.

2. Enter your responses from the individual country analysis into the spreadsheet for each country you researched.

3. Compare countries and identify potential changes to policy/regulation.

+ 5. Summarize key takeaways

Review your country comparison spreadsheet. Then:

• Summarize key takeaways from your comparison;

• Identify your priority regional harmonisation opportunities for each DFS enabler, looking for opportunities that are low-effort and high-impact;

• Brainstorm next steps to keep the regional harmonisation process moving.

---

---

UNCDF Policy Accelerator Toolkit

This guide is part of the UNCDF Policy Accelerator Toolkit. Watch a video overview in English or French to learn more.

Watch the overview in French.

Watch the overview in English.

---

---

UNCDF resources in this guide

• Template: Key questions for assessing the current market and regulatory landscape (EN)

• Modèle : Questions clés pour évaluer le marché actuel et le paysage réglementaire (FR)
  

• Template: Summarise opportunities for regional harmonisation (EN)

• Modèle : Résumer les possibilités d'harmonisation régionale (FR)
  

• Worksheet: Regional harmonisation (EN)

• Feuille de travail : Harmonisation régionale (FR)