DOC F 000/95 (o : GB) 20.9.1995



Doc 0519/16 1 June 2016(Vers. 1.1.) JO23 rd WSBI Board of Directors & 23rd General assemblyBangkok, 30 June 20164. Report on latest activitiesItem 4.1: Progress Report by the Managing Director(Reporting period: September 2015 – June 2016) The members of the WSBI Board of Directors and General Assembly are invited to take note of and comment on the Progress Report on WSBI activities for the period from September 2015 – June 2016Table of Contents1. Introduction and Summary32. Strengthen profile and influence of WSBI lobbying activities onrelevant G20 and other priority advocacy files53. Implementation of the WSBI Universal Financial Access (UFA)2020 Commitment and the Marrakech Declaration work plan64. Direct support to WSBI members10International tenders and grant funding10Training and exchange of best practices’ activities11WSBI Events and Activities12WSBI Regional Group Activities14Africa14Asia/Pacific16Latin America and Caribbean Regional Group (GRULAC)18Annual Postal Savings Banks Forum20Microfinance activities21Interaction with Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI)24Digitisation24 5. Implementation of WSBI-ESBG transformation plan26Introduction and Summary:This Progress Report covers the period of September 2015 – June 2016 and is an update of the Progress Report (Doc 838/15) submitted to the WSBI Board of Directors in Washington in September 2015. The main highlights from activities during the reference period include: Advocacy on international policy issues continues with high-and working-level meetings with international policy makers and standard-setters such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Financial Stability Board, the OECD, the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) as well as with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG). Close contacts are also maintained with the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, as well as other Authorities in the regions.During the reference period WSBI-ESBG responded to a number of consultations, in particular those of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), on such topics as interest rate risk in the banking book, revisions to the standardised approach for credit risk, operational risk and leverage ratio revisions.WSBI has updated its Institutional Messages in line with the priorities of the G 20 Chinese Presidency under the overarching objective: “Towards an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy”. WSBI has presented an upbeat 2015 progress report to the World Bank Group on the commitment made to their Universal Financial Access 2020 Goal. It has exceeded its projections both in terms of total numbers of customers at 1.549 billion as well as new transaction accounts at 117 million in 2015. These results represent respective annual growth rates of 2.4% and 8.2%.The 24th World Congress of Savings and Retail Banks took place in Washington D.C. on 24 and 25 September 2015 on the topic “Main Street Banking in a Digitised World, with a participation of around 350 participants from all continents and a very impressive line-up of international speakers and panellists.The results of the WSBI Doubling Savings Acounts Programme were presented at a Workshop in Washington in September 2015 and a final report was published. Work on publishing the lessons learnt continued during the reference period. The project came to a formal end on 30 Aprl 2016.WSBI has decided to incorporate its training and consultancy service into a newly created WSBI advisory services company, counting WSBI, CaixaBank and the German Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation as its founding shareholders.WSBI renewed its commitment to the United Nations Global Compact, initiated in 2006, with a Communication of Engagement published in October 2015.The first WSBI Financial Inclusion Event in the middle east north Africa (MENA) region in January 2016 was the opportunity to create a WSBI MENA subgroup, which will be chaired by Mr. Redouane Najm-Eddine, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Al Barid Bank.WSBI and its Asia Pactific region joined forces for the first time with the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) on 6 April 2016 in Tokyo to convene a Policy Forum to explore how policy can enable savings and retail banks to harness better the digital wave sweeping the financial services industry. This meeting was organised back to back with the 2016 APEC Financial Inclusion Forum, in which WSBI facilitated a session on savings.WSBI has been invited to join the Leadership Council of the Microcredit Summit Campaign and has renewed its commitment to the Campaign in February 2016. It also attended the Summit in Abu Dhabi in mid-March and participated in the leadership Council Retreat to debate on the role finance services play in ending extreme povertyConsiderable progress has been made in the area of digitisation during the reference period. This has taken place at several levels including advocacy, exchanges of information and experience at regional events and the creation of the High- Level Group on Digitisation and Innovation as well as the promotion of cooperation between members with concrete projects such as the WSBI-ESBG online community which is being established with the support of CaixaBank. Strengthen profile and influence of WSBI lobbying activities on relevant G20 and other priority advocacy files:WSBI has updated its Institutional Messages in line with the priorities of the G 20 Chinese Presidency under the overarching objective: “Towards an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy”. These messages will be shared with the Chinese Authorities implicated in the G 20 Presidency by the WSBI President and Managing Director in a series of bilateral meetings in China on 21 & 22 June 2016. They will also be submitted to the meetings of the Finance and Central Bank Governors, the B 20 Summit and the G 20 Leaders Summit taking place under the Chinese Presidency between July and October 2016, after validation by the WSBI Board of Directors and General Assembly. The complete set of the updated WSBI institutional messages prepared for G 20 Chinese Presidency is contained in the background paper prepared for item 5 of the Agenda of the WSBI Board of Directors and General Assembly meeting (see Doc 0430/16).WSBI is in constant contact with the key international policy makers, standard-setters and international institutions responsible for regulating and supervising the financial services sector. During the reference period it has also responded or is in the process of preparing responses to several consultations from these bodies as outlined below:The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) consultation on the interest rate risk in the banking book (IRRBB) in September 2015. In its response, WSBI-ESBG emphasised that both approaches suggested were too standardised, and might even endanger the bank’s ability to continue providing low-risk savings products to customers at their current levels. Consultation by the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) on the 2nd edition of its White Paper: “Global Standard-Setting Bodies and Financial Inclusion: the Evolving Landscape” in January 2016. WSBI expressed its support of the aim of integrating financial inclusion objectives into the standards and guidance emanating from the international standard-setting bodies (SSBs). It emphasised the need for proportionality in the work of the SSBs as well as the need for dialogue with industry on these issues. The BCBS second consultation on revisions to the Standardised Approach for credit risk in March 2016. WSBI-ESBG emphasised that it appreciated the re-introduction of external ratings but continues to have serious doubts that the proposed framework would improve comparability and remove unjustified differences in risk weights. The proposed framework seems too prescriptive and simplified to serve as a reference point for risk weight floors applied by banks using internal models (IRB-banks). Prior to this response, a WSBI-ESBG delegation participated on 17 February 2016 in a Hearing organised by the Basel Task Force on the Standardised Approach, which is dealing with the revision of the framework for credit risk in the standardised approach. The BCBS consultation paper on operational risk in June 2016. In its response, the WSBI-ESBG regrets that the BCBS plans to withdraw the so-called Advanced Measurement Approach (AMA) and we propose to limit the consideration of loss data to a five-year time horizon.WSBI-ESBG will respond to the BCBS consultation on the proposed revision of the Basel III leverage ratio framework for the deadline of 6 July 2016. The response to the BCBS Consultation on Pillar 3 Disclosure is also under preparation.As can be noted from the above, the regulatory reforms from Basel are of paramount importance for the retail and savings bank members of WSBI due to the impact they will have on their capacity to keep lending to the real economy. WSBI has targeted (and will continue to target) co-chairs of BCBS Task Forces, benefiting in some cases from members’ introduction.Implementation of the WSBI Universal Financial Access (UFA) 2020 Commitment and the Marrakech Declaration work planProgress on the implementation of the Marrakech Declaration work plan is summarised below under the main headings that are applied at national level for financial inclusion strategies as defined by the World Bank.Stock-taking data and diagnostics In the light of the development of WSBI’s commitment to the World Bank Group’s Universal Financial Access (UFA) 2020 goal, the Marrakech declaration work plan and the way forward in contributing to UFA now go hand in hand. WSBI submitted its 2015 UFA Progress report to the World Bank Group at the beginning of April 2016. This was a very upbeat statement and WSBI was pleased to report that it has exceeded its projections both in terms of total numbers of customers as well as transaction accounts as at 31 December 2015. The total number of clients reached by WSBI members totalled 1.549 billion against a projected total of 1.513 billion. WSBI members have expanded the number of new clients by 117 million in 2015. These results represent respective annual growth rates of 2.4% and 8.2%. WSBI members also achieved a total number of 2.331 billion transaction accounts against a projected total of 2.202 billion as at 31 December 2015. WSBI members have increased the number of new transaction accounts by 244 million in 2015. These results represent respective annual growth rates of 2.4% and 11.7%. A full picture of the progress made to date and the suggested way forward can be obtained from the document prepared for item 4.2 of the agenda (Doc 526/16.) It is important to note that the UFA 2020 goal is an interim milestone towards the World Bank Group’s goal of universal financial inclusion by 2030 and that this latter goal is precisely the objective of the Marrakech Declaration. Thus these two goals are very complementary. To ensure that achievement of these objectives can be well documented in an evidence based approach, WSBI continues to count on the annual questionnaire input from its members. In order to better understand the drivers of good or bad performance in achieving UFA and in complying with the Marrakech Declaration, WSBI is encouraging its members to adapt their management information systems going forward so that they can respond on the qualitative indicators in the questionnaire in the future. UFA 2020 Activities In terms of UFA activities, it should be noted that WSBI participated in the World Bank Group’s first Universal Financial Access (UFA) Partners Workshop, which took place in Washington DC on December 3, 2015. The workshop focused on approaches and challenges related to measurement and progress tracking towards the UFA goal. It was also an occasion to discuss more widely among partners on progress, challenges faced, expert advice on monitoring/reporting, and opportunities for new UFA partners’ collaborative initiatives. One of the main deliverables was a series of Considerations on UFA Measurement., which all parties have to take into account in their reporting. These considerations were the basis for the request for UFA 2015 data that was sent to all WSBI- ESBG Members in January 2016 (WSBI-ESBG Member Input 1/16). The data obtained constituted the basis for the WSBI 2015 UFA 2020 Progress report to the World Bank Group.A second UFA Partners meeting took place on 18 April 2016, just after the WB/IMF Spring meetings. The overall objective was to leverage private sector investment and innovation towards the UFA goal. The meeting had the following aims:To welcome a new member (Pakistan Microfinance Network) and to integrate new partners, which bring significant potential benefits to the group as global networks or development partners: Alliance for Financial Inclusion, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Institute of International Finance, World Economic Forum, and GSMA. To encourage the UFA private sector partners to share updates on their initiatives, progress updates and questions related to UFA. To initiate and facilitate focused discussions on 3 countries: Pakistan, Kenya and Myanmar. The meeting was also the occasion to present the UFA Progress portal, which was considered as a useful data (global and country level) and progress tracking tool: main takeaways can be summarized as follows:There is a need for country dialogues and interest in dialogues specific to selected countries was confirmed for: Pakistan, Kenya, Myanmar, and Nigeria. Additional themes emerged as of priority interest, including: Driving merchant acceptance and shared acceptance networks in key countries A deep dive into databases, including a critical and detailed scan of global and country-level data for financial access and usage measurement Regulatory and supervisory aspects applicable for telecommunications companies operating in the financial inclusion space and financial services providers (joint-regulation issues) Accelerators (innovations, tools, reform measures for countries to unlock or speed up the slow uptake of financial services). It was concluded that such meetings were a productive means for regular Partner check-ins and progress updates. Accordingly, it was decided that these UFA Partners meetings will take place on a quarterly basis going forward. Financial Inclusion 2020 WeekIn terms of activities with other stakeholders it should be noted that WSBI has been invited for the first time by the Centre for Financial Inclusion at Accion (CFI) to be one of their partners in the Financial Inclusion (FI) 2020 week, which ran from 2-6 November 2015. It is recalled that CFI is an influential action–oriented think-tank working towards full global financial inclusion, based in Washington DC. FI 2020 Week aims to build a momentum around addressing the most significant gaps in financial inclusion through a week of global conversation.WSBI contributed a conversation to the FI 2020 week on the topic of “making small savings work for customers and service providers” in the form of a webinar, also involving its members in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and agreed the following.action steps to take forward in 2016:Postbank Uganda (PBU)Within the next 6-9 months PBU commits to create 50 community kiosks/ neighbourhood banks for village group members which will serve as information points in the short term and cash in/ cash out points in the long term once the agency law is passed.Tanzania Postal Bank (TPB)Within the next 6-9 months TPB commits to create 100 group agents which will serve as cash in/ cash out points for village group members.Kenya Post Office Savings Bank (KPOSB)Within the next 6-9 months KPOSB commits to improve awareness of their services to at least 50 % of their customer base through SMS based awareness raising and financial education campaignsWorld Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI)Within the next 6-9 months, WSBI will provide further guidance to its members in collecting and analysing customer data for better achievement of financial inclusion and the universal financial access (UFA) 2020 goal.Further information is available on new cooperation has also meant that WSBI has invited its members to note and comment on CFI’s Financial Inclusion 2020 Report, which was published on 2 October (See Infoflash No 52/15). CFI has also hosted a WSBI blog on World Savings Day and on the results of the WSBI programme on making small savings work. Their blogs have some 15,000 readers.Strategy building/revisionThe work plan stated that WSBI would draw on lessons from the WSBI Doubling Savings Accounts Programme to stimulate debate amongst members and offer training & consultancy to members where possible. The programme came to an end in April 2016, so the main focus during the reference period has been on completing ongoing work, publishing lessons learnt on the Programme’s website and in several blogs with CGAP and the African Development Bank), as well as final reporting and accounting. A Report on WSBI’s Journey in making small- scale savings work had also been completed and was published in September 2015. This report as well as the final report of the project are very interesting in terms of best practices and lessons learnt in a number of areas and these have been widely disseminated amongst the broader WSBI network as well as stakeholders.Targets & objectivesIn September 2013, members of AFI (Alliance for Financial Inclusion) agreed to strengthen their member countries’ commitments under the Maya Declaration by signing the Sasana Accord, which included a provision to set measurable national financial inclusion goals in the efforts to achieve full financial access. WSBI member countries that have signed the Maya Declaration are:BelarusBrazilChileChina Colombia*El Salvador*EthiopiaGhana*GuatemalaIndonesia*Kenya*MadagascarMalaysiaMexicoMongoliaMorocco*MozambiqueNamibiaNigeriaPakistan PanamaPeru*Senegal*Tanzania*TajikistanUganda*ZambiaWSBI offers support to members in these countries by way of Training & Consultancy to align their own targets and performance indicators with national financial inclusion goals and targets. Those countries above marked * denote where WSBI has been provided assistance over the past year. Public sector policies/actionsActions and dialogue with the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) key implementing partners during the reference period are summarised below:Better than Cash Alliance (BTCA): WSBI was an active member of the Knowledge Management Sub-committee until its dissolution in 2015. The sub-committee existed to help identify key knowledge products, contribute to knowledge product development and support dissemination. During the previous reference period, the BTCA funded access to finance project in favour of FEPCMAC Peru came to an end. CGAP: At working level, CGAP has been represented on the Steering Committee of WSBI’s ‘doubling savings accounts’ programme and excellent relations are established. Continuous efforts to forge tangible partnerships are on-going.SME Finance Forum: WSBI became a Founding Member and attended the 1st Global Forum meeting in November 2015 On this occasion the founding members were announced and presented in the presence of Queen Maxima, the UN Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA)?..GPFI: WSBI was invited to speak at the GPFI Workshop on Market Conduct Supervision, Financial Consumer Protection and Financial Literacy taking place under the G 20 Chinese Presidency in X’ian City, China on 24 & 25 May 2016. IFC: Engagement on a day to day basis with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is undertaken by responding to M-SME Finance related tenders. They are also party to the MoU signed with the World Bank Group in connection with the strategic partnership (see below). WSBI also participated in the IFC Responsible Finance Forum which took place in?Antalya, Turkey from?7- 9 September 2015. United Nations Global Compact: WSBI-ESBG issued a Communication of Engagement (COE) with the Global Compact (GC) in October 2015. It is recalled that WSBI-ESBG has been officially recognized as a UN GC signatory since 2006. The COE is a direct communication from non-business participants to stakeholders on their specific activities to support the Global Compact. COEs have to be uploaded on the GC website and made available through their main stakeholder communication channels, There is a disclosure requirement for non- business participants such as WSBI- ESBG to issue a COE every two years. World Bank Group: Excellent relations exist between WSBI and the World Bank Financial Inclusion Global Practice. During the reference period, active discussions have been ongoing in connection with the a strategic partnership between WSBI and the World Bank Group, with the purpose of providing support to WSBI members as part of their Universal Financial Access 2020 Programme.Direct support to WSBI membersWSBI’s long-running flagship programme ‘Doubling Savings Accounts for the Poor’, which supported members in Burkina Faso, El Salvador, Kenya, Lesotho, Morocco, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Vietnam, came to a formal end on 30 April 2016, and our sponsor, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is currently reviewing the final report. To recap, the aims of the program were to significantly increase savings accounts for poor people by providing support and technical assistance to WSBI member banks in 10 countries. The dedicated pages ?on our website provide an overview of the program plus a comprehensive range of learning papers, which are also briefly summarized in a 12 minute video available on the front page. Given the program’s country distribution, the video naturally may appear rather African but the issues raised are common to all participating countries. Despite the inevitable challenges of such an ambitious program, the primary goal of doubling the number of savings accounts for the poor was achieved at six member banks that sustained projects throughout the program’s year duration increasing active accounts held in the hands of people living on less than USD 2/ day from 2.33 million in 2008 to 4.98 million in 2015, and external evaluators provided positive assessments of WSBI and member banks’ qualitative achievements. An overview of the achievements of the program, which reached far beyond the individual project activities, are included in Annex.A contract that commenced in August 2015 to provide technical assistance to Finance Trust Bank Uganda for a savings mobilisation project funded by Incofin, a Belgian based investment management fund is still ongoing. WSBI also has ongoing projects in favour of its members in Benin and Senegal under the African Postal Financial Services Initiative Applications are still outstanding to the Better than Cash Alliance (BTCA) on behalf of ASBEA (Association of Savings Banks of East Africa); and KPOSB Kenya. We understand for the time being that BTCA is prioritising projects elsewhere (in Peru). In this connection, the project to support FEPCMAC Peru’s mobile banking project (see previous section) for which WSBI had secured funding from BTCA came to a successful end on 31 May 2016.Furthermore the following activities have taken place during the reference period:International tenders and grant fundingOn-going assignments:IFAD African Postal Financial Services InitiativeAsian Development Bank: Developing AML/CFT approaches, methodologies and controls for non-bank financial institutions Uganda?: Finance Trust Bank?: savings mobilisation projectFEPCMAC Peru: Access to finance in remote rural areasEC Framework contractEBRD West Balkans and Croatia Framework contractSince the beginning of 2014, WSBI has refocused its T&C activities almost entirely on the financial inclusion agenda, and this will be taken over by the newly formed company, WSBI Advisory Services aisbl. Currently, proposals are pending for four contracts funded by the multilateral/bilateral institutions with a further eight expressions of interest outstanding. In addition, discussions are on-going with a range of public funders and private foundations seeking to raise grant funding to support financial inclusion related projects in favour of WSBI members. Notably, the strategic partnership agreement between WSBI and the World Bank in support of the World Bank’s Universal Financial Access 2020 programme is anticipated to lead to projects in favour of WSBI members; and a proposal with MasterCard Foundation to develop a potential multi-country programme in favour of WSBI members and other banks in Africa to build on the lessons of the WSBI doubling savings accounts programme will be considered by their Board of Directors on 16 June 2016. We are also at an early stage in negotiations with the African Development Bank to develop a new program focusing on the WAEMU countries of West Africa.Training and exchange of best practice activitiesThe training activity has for objective to respond to members’ needs for growth in banking and management skills along the line with their transformation into retail banks. The activity also includes the organisation of platforms with the aim to share best practices in strategic areas regarding, in particular, the institutional strengthening and development of innovative customer centric policies.TRAINING & EXCHANGES OF BEST PRACTICESJanuary25-29 *APFSI – Management training ArushaApril 17-21Branch SIM (ToT)DhakaMay19MED Confederation Conference TunisJune1Banking with village groupsAntananarivoJuly 11-22Global Leaders Programme Hongkong & ChangchungJuly2 last weeksTraining with Caixa FoundationGuatemala cityAugust1-5*APFSI – Financial inclusion & Train the trainerDakarAugust22-26*APFSI – Financial inclusion & Train the trainerCotonouAugust28-1/9 Branch SIM (ToT)DhakaSeptember25-29Branch SIM (ToT)DhakaOctober3Inclusive Respponsible Banking and FinanceExecutive Programme OnlineNovemberTBCPosteFinances – Leadership (follow up ) – training by DUFDakarDevelopment of new programmes Inclusive Responsible Banking and Finance: Development and promotion of a six month online programme that focuses on corporate governance, financial inclusion, CSR, ESG, their social impact and metrics in partnership with the Instituto de Estudios Bursátiles in association with the London School of Economics. Development of a customized programme on Responsible Banking and Financial Inclusion for the two banking training institutions in Bangladeshwith whom WSBI has signed a MoU in 2015: in progressFinancial Inclusion - Making Small Scale Savings Work: Development of a programme based on the learnings of the Bill & Melinda Gates programme: finalizedNew partnershipThe Global Intitute For Tomorrow (GIFT) and the WSBI signed a cooperation programme for the dissemination of their Global Leaders Programme. This programme takes place in Asia and constitues an extension of the training offer to Asian Members, in particular.EBTN – the European Banking and Financial Services Training network includes members (banking training academies and banking associations) from Europe and outside Europe. It is a platform for exchanges of good practices and for projects in area like quality standards, financial education. This is also a platform for selling memberships and/or T&C services: this is the case with Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management and the Bangladesh Bank Training Academy (MoU) and the Association of Banks in Lebanon (in progress). Creation of WSBI Advisory Services CompanyWSBI has decided to incorporate its training and consultancy service into a newly created WSBI advisory services company, counting WSBI, CaixaBank and the German Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation as its founding shareholders. The aim is to leverage the WSBI know- how to help locally focused banks make the needed leap to 21st century banking. The consultancy places focus on banking digitisation, payments, institutional reform of state owned bank, housing green finance, risk management, SME financing.WSBI Events and Activities WSBI World Congress of Savings and Retail BanksThe 24th World Congress of Savings and Retail Banks took place in Washington D.C. on 24 and 25 September 2015 on the topic “Main Street Banking in a Digitised World”, with a participation of around 350 participants from all continents. The Congress brought together 45 speakers and panellists over 1 and a half days. The speakers came from inside the WSBI membership, with a moderately good geographical balance between Europe (10), Asia (3), Africa (4) and Latin America (3). As for the external speakers and panellists, the balance was clearly shifted towards the Americas, and in particular the USA with 13 external speakers – not surprising given the fact the conference was organised in Washington DC, followed by Europe with 6 external speakers and Asia with only 1.The level of the external speakers was very high, with a US Senator, a US Member of Congress, a Minister of Finance, a member of the European Commission and the Chairwoman of India’s biggest bank. The content of the panels and keynote speeches was very high level and was well-framed into the overall theme of digitisation and local banking.The Congress was an excellent opportunity to network and the representatives of the WSBI joint office have fully taken this opportunity. It was also a good decision to organise the day before the congress the WSBI General Assembly and the “Making Small Scale Savings work workshop, as well as the Latin American and African Regional Group Meetings and a networking dinner for the Asian membersThe meeting with Commissioner Günther Oettinger who is responsible for the Digital Economy and Society within the European Commission after his keynote speech resulted in a meeting with representatives of the Directorate General under his responsibility in the course of January 2016.The Congress was also the occasion to launch the Washington Declaration “Taking the digital path, keeping a human touch”, which summarises the main strategic advocacy goals of WSBI for the next three years, until the next Congress. It should be noted that the World Congress remains a members’ event: we had a few registrations from Academics, but the vast majority of attendees come from the WSBI membership, mainly from Europe. WSBI-ESBG Cocktail Reception on the occasion of the World Bank/IMF Meetings.Beginning of October 2015, we also organised the traditional WSBI-ESBG Cocktail Reception on the occasion of the World Bank/IMF Meetings. The Annual meetings were organised in the Peruvian capital of Lima. The attendance was a bit lower than when the same event is organised in Washington D.C., which is natural given the longer distance. However, the WSBI delegation took the opportunity to meet with the Council of Europe Development Bank and with various banks, with one new membership, of the Lebanese bank Fransabank as a consequence.2015 World Savings DayWSBI-ESBG has organised an event, in Brussels, at the end of October 2015 to celebrate World Savings Day. Attended by around 60 people from the membership and Brussels-based organisations, the event was moderated by Sabasaba Moshingi, the CEO of Postbank Tanzania and President of WSBI’s Africa Regional Group. WSBI Regional Group ActivitiesAfrica WSBI MENA Financial Inclusion EventAbout 50 participants from all over the world convened in Marrakech on 19 January at the Postal Savings Banks Forum to discuss the financial inclusion ecosystem in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region on the kind invitation of Al Barid Bank. The meeting was presided by Mr. Abderrahim Bouazza, Director General Bank Al Maghrib (Central Bank of Morocco), Mr Chris De Noose, Managing Director of WSBI, Mr Amin Benjelloun Touimi, Director General, Group Barid Al Maghrib (Morocco Post), Mr Redouane Najm-Eddine the President and Chief Executive Officer of Al Barid Bank, Mr Jaloul Ayed, Former Minister of Finance of Tunisia. In the opening ceremony, Mr De Noose highlighted some key issues affecting the savings and retail banking industry such as low interest rate margin, tsunami of regulation (Basel, proportionality), write off of bad loans from the 2008 crisis and the impact of digitisation on payment system. He also emphasized the key role of WSBI in overcoming financial inclusion challenges. Mr. Bouazza, pointed out that there was a disparity between MENA countries as regards levels of financial inclusion, gender imbalance and between urban and rural areas. Mr Bouazza presented some financial inclusion achievements in Morocco, such as the license given to the Morocco Prost to create the Al Barid Bank in 2010 and the central bank 2020 strategy, which is focused on financial education, SME financing, Microfinance, as well as the use of technology to promote customer centricity. Mr Najm-Eddine presented his bank’s achievement on reaching out to women, youth, disabled and disadvantaged people.The key note speech of the opening ceremony was delivered by Mr Ayed who made a brilliant intervention containing ten recommendations to improve access to finance including: being a key part of national strategies, data availability, education programme, technology, workers remittances, institutional framework, success transfer, learning, women empowerment, consumer protection, and branch network expansion. Financial inclusion should not be considered as a subset of development strategies and national authorities should be the main sponsor. The keynote speech set the scene for the further debate on financial inclusion policies and strategies moderated by Mr De Noose and conducted by speakers from the IFC, GIZ CGAP. Further highlights from the meeting included the successful partnership of Al Barid Bank in financial inclusion with the Minhaty initiative, a model of government transfers to 370,000 students via a bank card issued by Al Barid Bank as well as the Tawfir Al Ghad banking initiative for youth (18-25 years, which has more than doubled its initial objective with a current 50,000 savings accounts) and the financial education of 3,000 Students in collaboration with the association Injaz Al Maghrib.The second part of the debate covered innovative payment systems in MENA with respect to both the regulatory and business perspective. These discussions were moderated by a representative of INBOX-France with the participation of panelists from CaixaBank, Al Barid Bank and GSMA Mobile Money. The conference was also an opportunity to formalize the creation of the MENA subgroup as part of the WSBI development strategy. The President of the Group is Mr Redouane Najm-Eddine, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Al Barid Bank, with memberships to be confirmed from Tunisia, Algeria Mauritania, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. The next steps will be to organize a meeting in Casablanca Morocco to validate the status, road map date and place of the next MENA group meeting. WSBI colloquium on UFA 2020 and West Africa Group meeting in Abidjan on 22 March 2016.WSBI hosted on 22 March in Abidjan, C?te d’Ivoire, a colloquium to promote and raise awareness on the WSBI contribution to the UA 2020 goal. Organised together with the Cote d’ Ivorian member, BNI Gestion, the event gathered delegates from the WSBI network in Senegal, Burkina Faso and the host country to explore best practices and opportunities to bring the unbanked into the formal banking system. The participants at the meeting fully support the UFA 2020 Commitment made by WSBI and its members last autumn to reach 1.7 billion clients and 400 million new transaction accounts worldwide by 2020. Participants in the institutional debate included officials from the C?te d’Ivoire Ministry of Finance and speakers from the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank. Presenters from GIM UEMOA, Afrique Emergence & Investments and Fond Jaida led discussions on how digital tools can help bring people into the banking mainstream.During the second internal part of the meeting, West African members acknowledged the positive signal sent by the Cote d’ Ivorian government’s financial support to the National Savings Bank of Cote d’Ivoire CNCE. The subgroup plans to host the next West African Group meeting.This meeting was a remarkable opportunity for WSBI to conduct bilateral meetings with high level stakeholders, including the Ministry of Finance of Cote d’Ivoire, the Financial Sector Development Department of the African Development Bank and the Director General of Arab Bank for Economic Economic Development in Africa.2016 Africa Regional Group meeting The 22nd WSBI Africa Regional Group meeting took place on 30-31 May 2016 in Madagascar on the kind invitation of Caisse d’?pargne de Madagascar (Madagascar Savings Banks) on the theme of: “Exploring the pathways to financial inclusion”. The official opening of the conference was chaired by the Minister of Finance and Budget of Madagascar. The Minister expressed his appreciation that Caisse d’?pargne de Madagascar was part of an international organization and expressed even his hope for the creation of a “World Savings Bank”.The sessions of 30 May 2016, focused on the regulatory challenges for better financial inclusion. Panelists from the Central Bank of Madagascar, Ministry of Budget and finance, International Finance Cooperation, African Development Bank and the Chairperson of the African Region group of WSBI stressed that measures were being taken to improve the regulatory framework. A lot of work remains to be done, however, and if things don’t improve quickly, Africa risks missing the boat of digitization because of a regulatory framework that does not allow savings and retail banks or microfinance institutions to work efficiently. The other sessions of the first day explored the ecosystem of savings groups in building financial resilience, also the impact of digitization in boosting financial inclusion, and the scope of health care in scaling up new business models such as micro insurance. The second day was dedicated to the institutional agenda of the WSBI African region group. The members presented the situation in their respective countries. In setting the scene for the round table debate, Sabasaba Moshingi, CEO of Tanzania Postal Bank and Chair of the Africa Regional Group stressed how important it is for African members to attend the Regional Group Meetings and fulfill their commitment with regards to the payment of their membership fees. The key takeaways from the meeting are outlined below:Appreciation of the knowledge sharing opportunities offered by the WSBI events (in this context, the planned WSBI online community could play an important role)Intense need of lobbying towards members’ national regulators on issues such as the separation of financial operations from the other post operations and barriers’ to grant credit products or to open extra branchesEmphasis on political dialogue in corporate strategies with respect to the public owned status of WSBI members Crucial need of capacity building from WSBI Joint office: digitization, savings mobilization agent banking, dormancy, bank insurance and Islamic banking.Unanimous agreement to work on the image and have a dynamic group= improve the solidarity and cooperation among members and attendance at the regional eventsZimbabwe and Lesotho call for the creation of the WSBI South African sub-groupReformatting of the working groups based on call for members’ experience on specific topicsThe Ugandan members’ interest to host the next regional meeting in 2017Asia/Pacific Asia Pacific Regional Group MeetingWSBI joined forces for the first time on April 6 with the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) in Tokyo to convene a Policy Forum that explores how policy can enable savings and retail banks to harness better the digital wave sweeping the financial services industry. The Forum brought together 11 WSBI member institutions, policymakers from the region including representatives from the Ministry of Finance and Central Bank of countries from the region to discuss issues on digital disruption from non-bank players and how banks respond as well as how regulation on innovation should be made appropriately and timely. Discussions concluded:In some markets, banks are losing customers to non-banks, including start-ups known as FinTechs, other more established tech companies, and shadow banks. Consequently, banks have to take proactive approaches to tackle the challenge and keep in mind that Technology innovation investment should be at an early stage.The future is a matter of a battlefield fought on trust and customer experience. Mastering the customer relationship, creating an emotional connection and leveraging their data treasure to deliver a superior customer experience are vital.Collaboration with FinTechs is a positive route to take, rather than putting up a wall or doing it all in-house. The future is also about how to collaborate and leverage partnership. Policy makers are open to innovations, new market players and new market developments. However, it is important to ensure a level playing field where the same rules apply to the same business with the same risks. Equal treatment in this sense is key to a healthy competition and to preventing any form of regulatory arbitrage. WSBI members’ development in digitization such as implementation of mobile banking, Virtual Teller Machines, agent banking, big data and partnerships with FinTechs were shared with participants. The emerging trends as far as financial inclusion is concerned are: 1) Digitization enables scaling-up of financial inclusion solutions. 2) Financial inclusion efforts need national coordination mechanisms and top leadership and commitment. 3) Policy making should be evidence-based and should be implemented based on proportionality. 4) Financial education and consumer protection are essential components to retain customers’ trust. WSBI’s commitment to the World Bank’s Universal Financial Access 2020 was also presented and members are encouraged to contribute to this global goal. The annual gathering of WSBI members from Asia, which coincided with the Policy Forum included roundtable discussion on WSBI members’ key challenges and how WSBI could provide its support. Working Groups of WSBI Asia Pacific Regional Group On the occasion of 2016 Asia Regional Group Meeting, at CEOs’ breakfast meeting in Tokyo on 6 April 2016, the Asian members conducted a strategy brainstorming session and concluded that advocacy, rural financial inclusion and remittances are priority areas for them. Accordingly, WSBI has drafted the terms of reference (ToRs) of the working groups including mandates, scope and approach. It is planned to present the draft ToRs to members on the occasion of 2016 WSBI Annual Meetings in Bangkok and seek members’ input on the working plan of the Working Groups. 2016 APEC Financial Inclusion Forum WSBI was one of the facilitators of the 2016 APEC Financial Inclusion Forum, which aims to give high-level policy makers a venue to discuss important issues in cutting-edge finance to help provide the opportunity to bolster the capacity of emerging economies to meet their goals in financial inclusion. WSBI chaired the session on savings and highlighted WSBI members’ experience in savings and the importance of financial education in this regard. The Forum was co-organized by the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), and the Foundation for Development Cooperation (FDC), in partnership with the Citi Foundation. Eastern Europe and Central AsiaThe 1st WSBI Event in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to be hosted by Belarus Bank and take place in Minsk on 30 September and 1 October 2015 was postponed. This was due to the fact that the number of participants did not reach the expectation of the host institutions. A number of high-level speakers had confirmed to speak at this event, including the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), high level representatives from the Belarus Government as well as other public and private stakeholders. Representatives of WSBI members BKT Albania, OTP Hungary ?ekerbank, Turkey, Amonatbonk, Tajikistan and the German Savings banks Foundation for International Cooperation had also agreed to share their experience on improving SME access to finance and working with international financial institutions with the participants. It is decided to relaunch the 1st WSBI Event in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in 2016 in Brussels on 17-18 October 2016, in partnership with European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS). EIAS is a leading Think Tank and Policy Research Centre, which promotes dialogue and understanding between the European Union and Asia on affairs of strategic regional and global importance. The advantage of partnering with EIAS to organize the event is to leverage the connections EIAS has with Embassies of Central Asian countries in Brussels and also contacts at the f EU Commission and EU Parliament that have specific interest in Asian countries. It is recalled that the objective is to provide a platform to engage stakeholders such as central banks, ministries of finance, regulators, international and regional development banks as well as financial institutions to identify key challenges and opportunities as well as synergies to work together to create an enabling environment in order to boost economic growth and prosperity across the region’s economy and to improve the banking environment. The event will serve to create a platform to bring together WSBI members as well as potential member prospects from Central Asian and Eastern European countries and to identify common interests based on the exchanges of information and best practice at the event.Latin America and Caribbean Regional Group (GRULAC) With a view to implementing the WSBI 2020 Strategy, of promoting the WSBI brand in the LatAm region, GRULAC met in a series of strategic roundtables/steering committees that have resulted in the identification of two major work streams:generating and sharing knowledge, including organising forums and establishing working/focal groups on specific topics;advocacy and interest representation as the global voice of retail banking.The most recent development arise from the meetings held on 8 April 2016 in Nassau. The WSBI GRULAC took advantage of the IDB-IIC Annual meetings held in Nassau to host a breakfast-Colloquium on “Closing the Gap between Access and Usage”. The press release/conclusions of the breakfast-colloquium are available following this link: . The breakfast event was followed by the GRULAC 7th Steering Committee meeting that agreed upon the following points:Members agreed with the outline of WSBI's institutional positions towards the G20 (under preparation). However, they urge that the institutional position of the WSBI includes the request for a study from international organizations such as the World Bank and the OECD on best practices for customer identity verification in electronic banking, including mobile media.Members are in favour of WSBI's proposal to incorporate the request for information below to the existing data collection mechanisms, i.e. the annual statistical questionnaire and the UFA 2020 form in order to avoid burdening the daily activities of members. In terms of digital banking, no. of ATMs, POS, accounts, clients, as well as information including gender, age, income gaps, location urban/rural, etc. In terms of MSME, No. of MSME accounts MSME Outstanding Loans (local currency)In order to better understand the activities of members, members proposed to organise webinars to present the success stories of members in reaching out to a greater number of customer in a sustainable and efficient manner, for example, and any other best practices of potential interest to the GRULAC members want to share from their institutions. Therefore: WSBI will organize a Webinar on ImaginBank for GRULAC members to capitalize on the presentation made by CaixaBank during the breakfast-colloquium.Also, another Webinar on the MSMEs case studies from Banco Estado (Chile) and Banco Caja Social (Colombia) is foreseen.Members considered the main topic The Customer at the Centre of the Bank Strategy in a Digital World to be interesting. Nevertheless, other interesting topics could be addressed such as cybersecurity, operational efficiency, mitigating money laundering risks, etc.High-level contacts with key stakeholders in Latin AmericaThe Peruvian Federation of Municipal Savings and Credit Banks (FEPCMAC), WSBI member in Peru, invited the WSBI to participate as speaker at its annual International Microfinance Seminar on 21-23 April 2016 in Arequipa. Discussions covered the overall theme “Financial Inclusion, Opportunities and Strategies”. Chris de Noose stressed that proportionate regulation stimulates the vital role of locally rooted banks during his address. The WSBI GRULAC President and President of Banco Caja Social, Colombia was also present and insisted on the importance of offering a diversified range of products and services, linked by technology, as well as on the imperative need for the employees of microfinance organizations to understand the client with “empathy” while keeping in mind the “what for” approach of their role in financial inclusion and microfinance, which is “to transform the future of people”.During the event, FEPCMAC highlighted that the Peruvian savings and credit banks under its umbrella are taking the plunge into a high-tech initiative designed to boost financial inclusion. The scheme is called Bim, short for "Billetera móvil", translated as "Mobile Wallet", and it is a unique national e-wallet system bringing together 34 financial institutions – including those savings bank within WSBI member Peruvian Federation of Municipal Savings and Credit Banks (FEPCMAC) under the partnership called "Modelo Peru".The partnership has built one shared platform managed by technology giant Ericsson.WSBI participated as a speaker at the Federation of Latin American Banking Associations (FELABAN) annual meetings in Miami from on 17 November 2015 in the “Financial Inclusion: Challenges and Opportunities for Latin America” panel. The other panellists were from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Banco Estado Chile (WSBI’s member in Chile) and Banco Davivienda, Colombia. WSBI participation in the panel is the result of the contacts established with Felaban’s and FIBA’s (Florida International Bankers) top management, that jointly manage the Felaban annual meetings, during the annual meeting November last year in Medellin. The objective of participation in this panel is to put WSBI on the regional radar, as each year the event brings together the major players in the banking sector in the Americas, as well as from other regions. Thus it is a prime opportunity to profile WSBI not only in the Latin American region, but also with the international banking stakeholders with a presence in Miami. This was also the occasion for WSBI to set up a significant number of bilateral meetings to present WSBI and its value proposition to potential member prospects and stakeholders that could possibly collaborate with the WSBI network. It was also the occasion to meet representatives of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI/BCIE) to review potential cooperation opportunities going forward. It should be noted that Banrural and Fedecrédito, respectively WSBI’s members in Guatemala and El Salvador, are clients of theirs for their SME credit lines. It was agreed thatit could be useful to involve CABEI/BCIE as a speaker at one of the upcoming WSBI events in the region so that they could showcase best practice examples of long-term infrastructure financing as well as SME Lending.WSBI was invited to speak at the 7th OECD-CEMLA Annual Conference on Financial Education and Inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean taking place in 12- 13 October 2015 in Montevideo, Uruguay. It was not possible to participate because of a conflict of agendas and short notice, but it was agreed that WSBI and its members would be well represented at the 2016 Conference. In Nassau, GRULAC members agreed that WSBI will have a joint panel including an introductory remark by Mr. Chris De Noose, WSBI's Managing Director, followed by a joint presentation by FEDECR?DITO and the Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation. The 8th CEMLA-OECD Conference on Financial Education and Inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean is taking place on 24-25 November 2016 in Buenos Aires.Annual Postal Savings Banks Forum WSBI organises an annual Postal Savings Banks Forum in recognition of the identity of postal financial services institutions, which represent about a fourth of the WSBI membership. The 18th WSBI Postal Savings Banks Forum took place in Marrakech, Morocco on 20 January 2016 and was hosted by the Al Barid Bank – Postbank Morocco. The Forum gathered more than 40 representatives from some 15 financial institutions to address how postal financial institutions should position themselves and respond in a new digitized world.Discussions confirmed that indeed FinTech players do bring disruption to the traditional banking sector. Postal financial institutions have been actively exploring how to utilize technology and innovation for business opportunities and to upgrade their financial products and services in rural areas. A concrete example is using new technology innovations including big data, e-commerce and internet finance to reduce the cost of providing financial inclusion services offers such as microcredit. In effect, digitization can ease the identification of clients and help to overcome the key challenges of microcredit such as lack of information, credit records and collateral. In this regard, building strategic partnership with new players is key and such partnership should be on a “win-win” basis. It was also highlighted that financial education is essential to build trust and to make people feel comfortable to use new technology.As regards whether postal financial institutions can contribute to accelerating the movement towards Universal Financial Access 2020, there is still a long way to go for post offices in some countries which are still lacking capacity. Government support is specially needed to provide access to basic financial inclusion such as a transaction account and payment facilities in poor rural areas. This support can be eased out step by step, thus moving from subsidized financial inclusion to a sustainable financial inclusion approach. Appropriate infrastructure, an enabling financial regulatory and supervisory framework, financial literacy and consumer protection are all key financial inclusion enablers. The discussion also addressed whether there is a best postal banking model and what the trend of postal banking business model will be in the next five years. It was concluded that there is ‘no-one-size fits all’ business model and each postal financial institution should learn from other countries’ experience and tailor this into their country context. This conclusion is demonstrated by the experience of India Postbank, Postal Savings Bank of China, Al Barid Bank Morocco, which are regulated respectively as a payment institution and full commercial banks. The legal regime of post offices, the capacity of post offices to provide a range of financial products and services, the financial market landscape and cultural differences, etc. are all factors that postal financial institutions have to take into consideration in order to transform and position themselves effectively in the market. The competition for postal financial services goes beyond traditional banking players in a digitized world, particularly with the boom of mobile money operators (MNOs) and internet finance. However, it was underlined that post offices and new players, e.g. mobile money operators, can be complementary. The density of post offices varies from country to country. For example, in some countries where the MNO outlet network is larger than that of post offices, Postbank can use MNO outlets. In some countries, postal banks have been split from post offices but they are now taking a proactive approach to leverage the strength of post offices. This is also a way for the post office to diversify its revenue stream. Key challenges working with post office such as relationship management, culture transformation, skills of employees, etc. still remain. Asset diversification approaches vary depending on the legal and supervisory regime of postal financial services. In some cases postal financial service institutions do not have a banking license yet have to invest part of their assets in capital market instruments or vehicles such as hedge funds and in some cases these assets are managed by the Ministry of Finance. ?It was concluded that WSBI’s annual Postal Savings Banks Forum serves as an important platform for exchanges of experience and expertise on successful business models in various countries and how these can be leveraged in the best possible way. Microfinance activitiesWSBI involvement at the Microcredit Summit Campaign and the Leadership CouncilRenewal of the WSBI Commitment to the Microcredit Summit Campaign in February 2016, WSBI and its members will step up their efforts to provide first time access to transaction accounts and to encourage active usage of these accounts by promoting a pro-poor and customer centric product and service offer for all segments of the population, based on the proven criteria of usability, affordability, accessibility and sustainability. Linkage with village banking and self-help groups will be an important element in this context and aims to contribute to helping families lift themselves out of extreme poverty.This will be done through awareness raising events, including exchanges of information and best practice at WSBI regional events as well as targeted capacity building provided by the consultancy and training arm of WSBI. WSBI will also actively seek partnerships with other stakeholders involved in the innovation, digitalization and technology space so as to reap synergies and roll out innovative digital solutions to providing financial services. Participation at the 18th Microcredit Summit Campaign and in the Leadership Council in Abu Dhabi on March 14-17 2016 WSBI took part as a partner in the 18th? Microcredit Summit Campaign organised in partnership with the Arab Gulf Programme for Development, which took place in Abu Dhabi from 14-17 March 2016. The objective of the Summit is to find effective ways to reach the most vulnerable and marginalized through microfinance and financial inclusion strategies. This year’s theme focused on innovation frontiers in financial inclusion. A wide range of stakeholders used the platform of the Summit to promote best practices and opportunities in using innovation and microfinance as tool to facilitate movement out of poverty. The Leadership Council, of which WSBI serves as a member, held a retreat to debate on the microfinance contribution to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Held alongside the main forum, council participants brainstormed on best strategies to feed the policy message on the role financial services play in ending extreme poverty. Action groups were created on rural finance, community led finance, graduation out of poverty with a window for non-banking services offered by financial institutions and risk management by the poor. WSBI is the vice chair of the community led finance group together with the UNCDF, FINCA international and several experts on the area. WSBI and the Smart CampaignWSBI has contributed to the Smart Campaign’s Client protection standard 2.0 with regard to Savings in December 2015. The Smart Campaign is closely associated with CFI and Accion.As a result of this connection WSBI has attended a free, three-day training on the Smart Campaign client protection principles and related client protection tools and resources, and the Social Performance (SP)I4 social audit tool run by the Responsible Microfinance Facility (RMF). This training is designed for professionals who would potentially analyse Smart assessment or SPI4 audits during due diligence or monitoring visits to financial service providers (FSPs), or who may support FSP partners that conduct Smart or SPI4 assessments for capacity building and/or reporting. The RMF is a project funded by the Agence Fran?aise de Developpement (AFD) and managed by the Social Performance Task Force, in collaboration with the Smart Campaign. The purpose of the RMF is to strengthen the social performance management practices of financial institutions in Africa and the Middle East.WSBI Involvement with the European Microfinance Platform ( e-MFP)WSBI was present at the 2015 European Microfinance Week, the annual flagship event of the e-MFP, which took place in Luxembourg from 18-20 November 2015 and gathered some 450 participants. The theme of this year’s event was sustainable development in financial inclusion The conference workshops, Action Groups and plenaries addressed the various financial, social and environmental components of sustainability, including: identifying overheated and underserved markets to better target growth and increase sustainability; incentivising long-term financing by investors; new approaches to managing risk and expanding outreach through better understanding of client needs and developing tools to reach them effectively and affordably; protecting clients from shocks in difficult contexts and providing them with a suite of financial services for sustainable livelihoods; and increasing environmental sustainability – through finance for clean energy products and improved agricultural practices.A salient event of the week was the 6th European Microfinance Award won by Crédit Rural de Guinée for its response to the Ebola outbreak in the country. The award was presented by the Grand Duchesse of Luxembourg, who chaired the Award selection committee.In addition to attendance at the e-MFP Board and Annual Meeting, WSBI’s participation in the e-MPF week focused particularly on the Digital inclusive finance empowerment Action Group, which held an open session and sponsored a cocktail. Furthermore the success story of the Tanzania Postal Bank mobile banking card Popote launched in 2013 with the support of the WSBI program of doubling the number of savings accounts for the poor was presented in the session on “Integrating digital financial services”. The program has contributed to the banks’ increase in savings deposits of 41%, an increase in lending of 59% with a non-performing loan ratio of 3.2%.the overall performance of the bank is 47% higher profit and an asset growth of 48%. WSBI attends all eMFP Board meetings and one of the main topics dealt with during the reference period was the elaboration of the eMPF strategy in support of funding for the period 2017- 2021. WSBI has contributed to this exercise and is also a member of the eMPF Board Committee which vets the project proposals of the eMPF Action Groups before they are circulated to the full Board for approval.Finally for the first time WSBI has been invited to serve on the eMFP Award Selection Committee for?its 7th European Microfinance Award on the topic of Microfinance and Access to Education. It is intended to recognise the role of microfinance in enabling access to education for children and/or skill-training for youth and adults to enhance their employment and self-employment.The Award of €100,000 is granted by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs – Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs and is jointly organized by the Ministry, the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) and the Inclusive Finance Network Luxembourg (InFiNe.lu). It will be presented on 17th November 2016 during the European Microfinance Week in Luxembourg.WSBI and the European Microfinance Network The European Microfinance Network (EMN) brings together organisations primarily involved in the European Union (EU) and EFTA countries that address issues related to professional and personal microcredit, as well as business development and training to entrepreneurs. Other financial services (i.e. insurance, savings) are still underdeveloped. WSBI- ESBG has a longstanding relationship with the EMN mainly in the advocacy area. They share the aims to increase the understanding of the importance of microfinance as a tool to fight poverty and social exclusion in Europe, to encourage European microfinance practitioners to share good and transferable practices in the field of microfinance, and to promote and spread these good practices to other microfinance agencies in Europe. This relationship includes participation in their various think tanks and short term Working Groups on defined topics relevant to the European context. A concrete example is the contribution of the WSBI- ESBG into the elaboration of the microfinance code of conduct in European countries. Another one is the knowledge sharing and mutual promotion of their respective members. This year the EMN is involved in some organizational development which resulted in the transformation into a membership based association with an annual fee to be paid by the members. WSBI- ESBG will remain a member of the EMN in the light of the benefits it provides. WSBI participates at the European Micro platform (E-MPF) action group of digital innovations for financial empowerment (DIFE) The e-MFP DIFE brings together microfinance and financial inclusion professionals in areas of digital, electronic and mobile finance operations with the objective to identify some relevant digital finance initiatives of e-MPF members and disseminate the lessons learnt from the business model around the world. WSBI has joined the DIFE on its creation in 2015. In 2016 the DIFE evolved in different subgroups on case studies, partnerships, and Fintech. WSBI is part of the subgroup on case studies and it has presented the Tanzania Postal Bank’s business model for Village groups (VSLA / VICOBA) including its mobile banking platform. The WSBI will host the next meeting of the DIFE planned for July 2016.Interaction with Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI)WSBI is a member of the Supervisory Board of CYFI and participates in their regular meetings, most of which take place through telephone conference. The current main focus is on the elaboration of the CYFI 2020 Strategy to be presented at the Child and Youth Finance International Summit, hosted by the Government of Romania in Bucharest from 28-29 June 2016In essence, CYFI plans to build on the momentum and foundation it has created in its first years, on the topic of Economic Citizenship of the next generation and plan the road towards Full Economic Citizenship of children and youth. The main thrusts of the strategy include: ? Focus and stakeholders: CYFI will focus increasingly on Financial Inclusion, while continuously emphasizing the importance of the FI/ECE integrated approach. It will do so by primarily working with governments, while ensuring that other stakeholders are actively involved in the process. ? Approach: CYFI will take a segmented approach in working with countries.. CYFI will offer different services to countries, depending on the countries’ ranking on the barometer. ? Monitoring: CYFI will launch the Barometer that will rank countries according to their performance on the main elements of Economic Citizenship (Economic Citizenship Education, Financial Inclusion, Livelihoods) During the reference period, WSBI has contributed to CYFI’s strategy review during the last physical Board meeting and subsequent workshop in London mid-December as well as at subsequent Board meetings It also responded to an online survey and had an interview on the topic with McKinsey, who are helping CYFI develop their strategy on a Pro Bona basis. It was also present at CYFI’s Awards Ceremony that took place in the House of Lords in mid December. HFC Bank, WSBI’s Member in Ghana, won a “Pioneer Award” for its work on designing and testing the social and commercial impact of youth savings accounts.This year also, WSBI encouraged its members to participate in the 2016 Global Money Week (GMW) celebrations in March 2016. A report on these activities is available on the website under the following link () Finally it should be noted that WSBI and CYFI are working together on a joint publication on School Bank with input from the German Savings Banks Financial Services Group as well as WSBI members in Chile, Kenya, Malaysia, and Thailand. This will be published in the course of 2016. This joint publication forms part of the cooperation agreement concluded between WSBI and CYFI in April last year.Digitisation Digitization of society is gathering pace all around the world and affects directly or indirectly, though at different degrees, every aspect of daily life. Digitization not only means dematerialising traditional ways but also reinventing whole value chains from scratch. In this process new industries are created and older industries, including banking, are transforming.Against the background of this continuing development WSBI’s role is – at least – threefold: first ensuring that Members are informed of key developments and salient forecasts in a timely manner, second identifying the key aspects on which to engage policy makers and legislators in order in particular to allow for a continuing level playing field between all market participants, and third promoting cooperation between Members to research, pilot and deploy infrastructure components and products and services fit for the digitized world. While the first role translates on one side into the exchange of information in some of WSBI Committees and the other traditional channels, on the other side WSBI is working to enhance that exchange of timely information, first by repeating, at an Innovation Conference to be held in Brussels in December 2016, the success of the April 2015 Barcelona conference, second by launching an online community tool, which will enable Members to dialogue in real time, in topical closed user groups, on the more pressing issues of digitization. The first such online community to be launched will address cybersecurity, with the aim to enable Members to inform cross-border in real time about cyber threats and how to mitigate them. Other communities being currently invited address topics such as e-identity, big data, online platforms…The second role – influencing policy makers and legislators – at present mainly translates into activity at ESBG level, in particular focused on the European Commission’s Digital Single Market inititiave. However, dealing with digitization from a polcy and legislative perspective in Europe equips WSBI with hands-on know how about developments and issues from a 360° perspective. This also includes the development of the first continent-wide retail instant payment scheme, to which WSBI contributes with respect to the formulation of the scheme rulebook as well as the organisation and preparation of the related clearinga nd settlement farmwork. The third role – promoting cooperation between Members – received additional momentum with the launch of the High Level Group on Digitization and Innovation. The Group met already twice since its establishment in January 2016. At its April meeting the Group approved a white paper on e-identity, which feasability will now be tested on a bilateral basis, the launch of a real time capability to exchange cyber threat information, and the exploration of interoperability for person-to-person mobile payment systems. The High Level Group will gradually be expanded to Members outside Europe. The person-to-person activity could also form the foundation of a remittance concept which is currently being formulated by WSBI. During the reference period, WSBI- ESBG concluded two licensing agreement with BeeOne GmBH, the Vienna based Innovation Hub of Erste Group Bank AG for the following apps:Pocket Bank, the name of a mobile application provided by BeeOne, Erste Bank and the Austrian saving banks focussed on the topic of increasing financial literacy for children. It is foussed on :Teaching children the value of moneyTeaching positive habits of earning pocket money (or non- financial benefits) through fulfilling tasksTeaching children the concept of saving for a specific goalProviding a space for the parent and child to interact easilyThe Money Tool: MONEY – Your Financial Health Check” is a web application that strives to make retail customers think about their relationship with money and financial matters in an entertaining way. This is done by leading them through a quiz which is divided into 8 different stages, each on a specific financial topic. As a result of the quiz the retail customer is categorised into a profile that describes his financial behaviour. This result provides the perfect occasion for the bank in question to engage with the customer to offer appropriate money management advice as well as products and services. This tool was developed by BeeOne on behalf of WSBI- ESBG as part of the work on the Financial Health Initiative that was developed by the WSBI- ESBG Marketing Network.Both of these apps are available to interested WSBI -ESBG members subject to the terms of a sub- licensing agreement to be concluded with WSBI. WSBI-ESBG Online CommunityConsiderable effort has been made over the reference period to develop the WSBI-ESBG On-Line Community Forum, which will facilitate the exchange of information between the WSBI-ESBG members on several topics. In a first phase, user requirements have been identified and based on these specifications, the Organisation Department has been working in close collaboration with e-La Caixa to develop this Online Community tool. The WSBI-ESBG On-line Community will be presented at the next WSBI Board meeting on 30 June 2016 in Bangkok. Implementation of WSBI-ESBG transformation plan Adjust the WSBI service offer The Joint Office is continuing to adjust its service offer in accordance with feedback received from the members and in line with the resources available. It is recalled that the top three international policy files (G20) of importance to members are: Financial inclusion, Basel III, Regulatory changes to banking business models towards funding the real economy. The top three international policy files on which non-European WSBI members would like to cooperate with ESBG members are: Financial inclusion, Basel III, Investments in SMEs and start-up business. It should also be noted that there is more and more demand for exchanges of information and best practice at all levels and within all parts of the world, particularly in areas related to innovation and digitisationMembership The developments concerning membership over the reporting period can be summarised as follows: New Membership applications have been received from:A Belgian Association of eight savings and retail banks, comprising Argenta Spaarbank and bPost, the existing WSBI –ESBG members which will withdraw their individual memberships in favour of this new association Lokale Pengeinstitutter, the Association of Local Banks, Savings Banks, and Cooperative Banks in DenmarkFransabank, a banking group with headquarters in the LebanonState bank of India Further details are available in the document prepared for this item on the agenda: Doc 559/16).Work continues to attract additional membership to the WSBI network in the various regions, also with the support of our members, such as Al Barid Bank, BTN Indonesia, CaixaBank, Government Saving Bank of Thailand and Tanzania Post Bank. This is done mainly by inviting potential prospects to WSBI events and also setting up bilateral meetings with banks attending flagship events as the World Bank / IMF meetings, regional events such as the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank that took place in Frankfurt this year and FELEBAN in Latin America. It should however be noted that in the current very cost conscious environment, it is becoming more and more difficult to recruit new members with the very generic value proposition that WSBI has on offer at present. The Joint Office is therefore engaging in a critical review of its value proposition. The objective is to differentiate WSBI from other international banking associations and to come up with clear and targeted value proposition for the different member segments. The objective is to do this on the current cost basis but with a better leveraging and innovative approach to resources, possibly including the establishment and activation of alliances and partnerships with external stakeholders. Raise Internal standardsThe 2015 work plan proposed that initiatives will continue to raise all aspects of staff professionalism, internal processes and systems. The ICT infrastructure has been, in a continued effort, further adapted to the most recent technology and user standards. Hereto, investments in new severs and software are necessary on a yearly basis. Further efforts were made to increase the functionality of the computer network and the applications to give a maximum satisfaction to the users. To improve the communication with our members, a new communication tool called ‘Skype for Business 2015’ (formerly Lync) has been gradually installed. This tools allows an easily set up of skype call as well as online web meetings.Currently we are looking into the possibility of including the audio integration of the conventional phone lines (landlines or mobile) to the skype for business meetings through the PSTN Conferencing add-in from Office 365.Further efforts have been made to improve our website under SharePoint infrastructure. We have stressed the importance to integrate our social media tools into our website. The RSS Feed functionality is fully operational on our website, which means that all news items published on our website can now also be consulted through an RSS Feed. Website visitors can subscribe to this RSS Feed. Currently, we are looking into the development of a responsive design of our website to improve the accessibility of our website on mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. In a second phase, the migration of the current Extranet and Intranet to this SharePoint infrastructure will be analysed and implemented. On the accounting and organizational level and still linked to the recommendations of the Roland Berger strategic review on the fact that the consultancy activities have to be shifted from ESBG to WSBI, the Organisation Department has been involved in the creation of the new consultancy entity called WSBI Advisory Services. The three founding members are the WSBI, the Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation and CaixaBank. The Statutes of the WSBI Advisory Services have been approved during a signing ceremony at the WSBI offices on 19 April 2016. A first Board meeting took place the same day. During the meeting the new WSBI Advisory Services website has been presented and welcomed by the members. Currently, the Statutes are under review by the Belgian Ministry of Justice to obtain legal personality and publication of the Statutes in the ‘Moniteur Belge’ (Belgian Official Journal)Finally some works and a move of our own staff was performed to increase the rental space that was taken up by one of our current tenants and a new tenant.On the publications front, English, French, Spanish and German versions of the CEO Letter have been sent out twice per month. An issue of News and Views has been published and a second issue is in preparation. Various corporate publications have been updated for use during events and at other occasions. The corporate website WSBI-ESBG continued to be the focus of many efforts. New items are published on a daily basis on the homepage, cross-links with other content are being made on a systematic basis and the content is also published on Linkedin and Twitter. As a result, the number of page views has increased significantly and our followers on Linkedin and Twitter have gone up dramatically. Work has also been dedicated to the creation of a website and the necessary corporate material for the newly created company WSBI Advisory Services and the Communications Department has also been involved in the preparatory work for the Online Community.Various interviews, with Politico, with Global Risk Regulator, with the Belgian magazine Trends, Reuters and M-Lex have resulted in the publication of interviews and articles. Journalists’ awareness is increased by a relentless distribution of press releases and news via email and twitter. ANNEXOverview of WSBI’s achievements under the WSBI ‘Doubling Savings Accounts’ ProgrammeIntroductionOn 30 April, WSBI’s flagship program supported by $20m of funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) came to an end. Its primary goal of doubling the number of savings accounts for the poor was achieved at six member banks that sustained projects throughout the programme’s 7 year duration since 2008 and external evaluators provided positive assessments of WSBI and members’ qualitative achievements. But the impact of the programme also went beyond the activities of individual projects. This annex provides a brief appraisal of WSBI’s achievements arising from the programme plus outlook for the future. ContextWSBI’s doubling savings accounts programme was positioned firmly in the global financial inclusion agenda. Of the 193 countries worldwide, 82 are designated by the World Bank as being low-income or lower-middle income countries, where just one issue dominates the future of banking: financial inclusion. WSBI members are represented in 25 of these countries (more than a third of the membership). The 2014 World Bank Global Findex estimates there are about 2 billion unbanked adults, or around half the worlds’ adult population. Not all are necessarily poor by UN definitions, but probably around 80-85% of them are (WSBI estimate based on the BMGF programme). It should be noted that financial inclusion is not just a developing country issue. Across the European Union there are around 37 million unbanked adults (by comparison, slightly less than the adult population of Spain), and around 1/3 of the population of the USA – 106 million people - is reported as unbanked or underserved. The issue is significant at policy level because evidence is now available confirming what WSBI has always known intuitively, that financial inclusion helps poor households to improve their lives and spur economic activity, and because financial exclusion is costly not only to individuals but also to domestic economies and the global economy. In 2010 the G20 adopted financial inclusion as a key development goal at their Seoul Summit, and in 2013 President Kim of the World Bank announced a goal of Universal Financial Access by 2020. In December 2015, a United Nations resolution was passed expressly supporting financial inclusion initiatives to spur economic development, and it also forms one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Against this backdrop, financial inclusion is one of the tenets of WSBI-ESBG’s value statement, and was the subject of the 2012 WSBI Marrakech Declaration, also updated and reinforced by the 2015 WSBI Washington Declaration.WSBI’s achievements under the doubling savings accounts programme should be viewed at three levels: a) at the level of participating banks; b) across the WSBI network; c) at the wider ecosystem level including policy/regulatory levels, business levels and contribution to knowledge.Participating banks (see Annex 1)In May 2015, a final evaluation of WSBI’s programme was completed that reported several achievements, amongst others:Across the ten projects, 2 million new active accounts had been added as at the date of the evaluation. Of these, the six projects that remained live for the duration of the whole programme added 1.4 million new active accounts, which represented achievement of their targets of doubling savings accounts for the poor. Since the date of the evaluation, new active accounts have increased to around 3 million for the ten projects, and 2 million for the live six projects. The evaluator foresees further rapid increases in account numbers during 2016-2017 and beyond as a consequence of the initiatives introduced. At the six projects that remained live for the duration of the programme and which were visited by the evaluators, a high degree of ownership and commitment was noted; their business models are now consulted by national authorities and international organizations as authorities on financial inclusion. Participating banks have strengthened their identity by clarifying their market positioning; the WSBI programme was completely integrated into banks’ strategies and operations.Participating banks have acquired new internal competences and agility to work with stakeholders of other corporate cultures; generally, the evaluators noted that participating banks have become more professional. Across the WSBI network: From the outset, the programme has stimulated a great deal of interest from WSBI members, evidenced by the 40 expressions of interest received in 2009 following the launch of the call for proposals. Interest has been maintained, encouraged by regular dissemination of studies and working papers and a series of lively workshops and events held since the start at both Marrakech and Washington World Congresses, all WSBI General Assemblies, Regional Group Meetings and other suitable occasions. We could also say that the inspiration for the 2012 WSBI Marrakech Declaration – “An account for everyone” - was borne from the doubling savings accounts programme, specifically following a dinner meeting with Bill Gates in November 2010 attended by the WSBI Managing Director. This in turn led in due course to approval by the WSBI Board in October 2012 of an associated work plan resulting in initiatives that are still ongoing today and reflected in this progress report.One of the original goals of the programme was that it should lead to further relevant programmes and projects benefiting WSBI’s members. Among those delivered by WSBI that we can directly link to initiatives that originated in the WSBI programme are:The African Postal Financial Services Initiative (benefiting WSBI members in Benin and Senegal)FEPCMAC Peru: Introduction of electronic paymentsHFC Bank, Ghana – (big) data analytics project using mobile phone data to develop propensity models for the poor to save (also funded by BMGF)Banco Caja Social, Colombia: support in business case modelling for financial services for the poor productsFTB Uganda: Support in the adoption of field-based delivery channel technology to implement FTB’s savings mobilization plan Other members have developed own initiatives based on WSBI programme learning, either after having not been selected in the initial call for proposal round (e.g., POSB Zimbabwe), or by incorporating WSBI learning into existing initiatives (e.g., BSN Malaysia); in Europe, interest was expressed at Erste Bank, Austria in models prompted by the one mentioned above in Ghana. The wider EcosystemAt a Financial Inclusion 2020 conference in 2013, the Group CEO of Citi commented that financial inclusion is no longer a CSR activity. This is increasingly borne out by the plethora of players in the ‘ecosystem’ for financial inclusion. ‘Ecosystem’ as a term came into common-use following a strategy refresh at BMGF published in 2011 (the foundation’s financial services programme is currently again undergoing a refresh). It refers to the broad landscape of interested stakeholders and actors, including multilateral policy makers such as the EU, the World Bank Group, the UN; G20 key implementing partners including AFI, Better than Cash Alliance, CGAP, IFC, IFAD, OECD and the SME Finance Forum; international financial institutions such as ADB, AfDB, EBRD, EIB, IADB plus various private sector actors (including BMGF); governments and regulators; industry associations such as GSMA, or Microcredit Summit Campaign; academics and thought leaders / relevant NGOs (e.g., Accion); and at industry level, savings and retail banks, microfinance institutions, mobile network operators, and fintechs. Large commercial banks also comprise part of the community: Barclays Bank, Citi, Credit Suisse, etc. These are the same set of actors with whom WSBI’s training & consultancy department, including via the WSBI doubling savings accounts programme, has daily relationships. Performing this programme has strengthened the department’s core functions, in promoting and defending members’ business models and giving visibility, access and credibility to WSBI in front of key policy makers and influencers on the major files at global level. Specific outcomes (not exhaustive) that can be noted include:WSBI’s G20 messages relating to financial inclusion are drawn directly from learning developed in the programme;The WSBI partnership with the World Bank in connection with UFA 2020 and commitment of 400m new accounts by 2020, plus the MoU signed with the World Bank Group in September 2015, were a consequence of extensive relationship building since the WBG’s Global Financial Practice was formed in 2011. Activities included regular meetings but the tipping point came in September 2013, when WSBI delivered a workshop on lessons learned under the programme to World Bank staff;Relations with AFI (Alliance for Financial Inclusion): delivered training on Payments Systems Oversight to AFI members, as well as disseminating lessons learned from the programme at AFI conferences;In 2013, WSBI was invited to become a full member of BTCA (Better than Cash Alliance); the FEPCMAC Peru project referred to above was funded by BTCA; WSBI has been an active member of the knowledge management sub-committee, inputting to country reports, recommendations to governments and design of toolkits aimed at transitioning countries to digital payments;Visibility at international financial institutions including all those listed above has been achieved via numerous workshops conducted mainly since 2013; also via speaking at international conferences such as the G20 Turkey Financial Inclusion conference (June 2014), the IFC Responsible Finance Forum (2015), and MicroCredit Summits in 2013 and 2016;WSBI has built a wealth of knowledge and expertise surrounding the barriers to financial inclusion and strategies to overcome them, which is available on . WSBI staff are regularly approached and consulted by various industry players for their views and information on the field. Academics also take note, e.g., WSBI was invited to speak at a Harvard University seminar in February 2013. WSBI was also invited in November 2014 to a breakfast meeting for an exchange with the Lord Mayor of London. Outlook for the future: The way forward as far as WSBI is concerned will be driven by two initiatives:The MoU signed with the World Bank Group. The main goals are:Addressing critical legal and regulatory reforms needed to facilitate WSBI members’ activities in improving financial access;Supporting the development of financial infrastructure that is tailored to individual environments (also requiring investment in technology);Attracting investments in pursuit of country level access that address general weaknesses, including shortages of capital;Providing advisory services to overcome technical or capacity shortcomings and to promote cultural or behavioural change;Stimulating innovation to productively adapt to the digitised world in which we now exist. MasterCard Foundation: a potential new programme is under negotiation to:Drill deeper on the viability of low balance savings accounts and use of customer centric approaches to address barriers faced in access, usage and affordability of savings servicesBuild on initiatives under the BMGF programme to help WSBI member banks in Kenya, Morocco and Uganda reach scale and sustainability with their low balance accountsInitiate new savings / mobile banking projects via a call for proposal process in Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal.WSBI has submitted a full proposal to MasterCard Foundation on 25 March 2016 for consideration by their Board on 16 June 2016.ConclusionFinancial inclusion will remain a global policy priority for at least the next 5-10 years. WSBI’s membership has an important role to play but is also threatened by developments and initiatives across the ecosystem, particularly as technology continues to drive down costs and increase outreach, and new entrants are attracted by the business opportunities in this field. The issues are similar to those faced in advanced economies. In fact, as our programme sponsor Bill Gates said in one of his Annual Letters, financial institutions in the developed world can learn much from the developing world. WSBI members are requested to take note and invited to continue support as WSBI moves forward with new initiatives. These will also be complemented by the formation of WSBI Advisory Services aisbl to take over WSBI’s consultancy activities. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download