As part of its Global Policy Initiative, CGAP partnered with the Central Bank of Brazil (CBB) in late 2008, to learn more about the issues and trends in consumer relations when financial services are delivered through branchless banking, particularly through agents in ever increasing scale. This report highlights some of our findings.
CBB and CGAP coordinated closely to gather data and information and to write this report. The first section of this report outlines the current state of play regarding the agency business. The following section summarizes the most important points of the legal and regulatory framework for financial consumer protection, emphasizing issues of particular importance for branchless banking. The report then presents the issues and problems identified in the relationship between branchless banking clients and providers, and supervisory and enforcement considerations. The last section introduces conclusions and recommendations for achieving a balance between openness to innovation and protection in a branchless banking environment.