Protecting Mobile Money against Financial Crimes : Global Policy Challenges and Solutions

There has been significant discussion on the potential power of mobile-based technologies to provide unbanked populations with access to financial instruments and channels. Through the specific use of mobile money (m-money) services, for example, customers have accessed informational services, such as balance inquiries in their bank accounts, and transactional services, such as sending remittances to other people or paying for goods and services via their mobile phones. M-money has also been used by national governments to pay employee salaries and benefits. A key objective of this report is to discourage use of informal systems through the creation of a proportionate and not overly burdensome regulatory framework. Overly restrictive identification and verification processes in know-your-customer (KYC) policies, for example, may push users back to the informal financial system. The evolution of m-money in Africa and in non-African, low-income countries means that low-income and low-capacity countries are grappling with ways to ensure compliance with international Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) standards. Thus, this report also provides some indications of how the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards can be applied to low-income clients within an m-money context. It does this by presenting various country practices and experiences to enable policy makers to identify the most appropriate solutions for their countries' individual circumstances.