Whose Responsibility is Responsible Finance?
by Rafe Mazer: Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Last week CGAP hosted the first of a planned series of discussions on responsible finance in low-income financial services, with panelists Fe de la Cruz, Director of Corporate Affairs for the Central Bank of the Philippines, Denise Dias, CGAP staffer and formerly of the Central Bank of Brazil, and Daryl Collins, author of Portfolios of the Poor.
The hot topic at the table on Wednesday was the challenge of consumer rights, and maybe not for the reason you might think. It seemed, to hear our panelists tell it, that getting regulations on the book is the easier part of the responsible finance puzzle, and the real challenge is communicating these rights to consumers so they understand them and seek recourse when these rights are threatened. This is particularly challenging with the low-income users of financial services CGAP is focused on, as issues of culture, literacy, and power dynamics hinder the exercising of their rights.
