The Fair Digital Financial Accelerator was launched by Consumers International with support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) to ensure a safe, proactive and sustainable digital finance market place for consumers in the low and middle income countries. The grant programme will support consumer associations to create or strengthen channels of engagement with regulators and digital financial services providers to find and accelerate solutions to risks and challenges experienced by consumers of digital finance within their countries.
Citizen consumer and civic Action Group will engage in furthering the above stated objective of Consumers international and aim to understand the current scenario of digital financial services in the country through surveys and aim to strengthen the existing knowledge ecosystem of consumers by creating and distributing IEC materials including pamphlets and awareness videos.
In recent years digital financial services (DFS) have seen a rapid rise in usage in low and middle-income countries such as India. DFS has the potential to transform the banking sector in India by ensuring that even people in the remotest areas can engage in money withdrawals and transactions via their mobile phones. However, the digital financial services landscape is fraught with challenges such as misinformation, frauds, lack of knowledge regarding safe use of digital services, and multiple other concerns. Through this project, the aim is to amplify the interests and challenges of the consumers and seek remedial measures from appropriate authorities in concerned countries. In India the concerned authority will be the Reserve Bank of India.