2022 WCRD and consumer protection against market abuses in digital financial services ecosystem

*Financial Technology experts and other industry stakeholders as digital banking consumers are expected to exceed 3.6billion worldwide by 2024, there is a need for an inclusive, safe, data-protected, private, and sustainable digital financial marketplace for all

Gbenga Kayode | ConsumerConnect

As new technologies continue to dominate the electronic payments system in several economies, stakeholders in the Financial Technology (FinTech) space have observed and stressed that digital technologies will remain in the global financial services industry.

ConsumerConnect reports the stakeholders made this observation at the commemoration of the 2022 World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD).

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The global community every March 15 of the year joins the consumer movement to highlight a pressing issue facing consumers globally.

This year, the membership of Consumers International (200 consumer groups in 100 countries) selected ‘Fair Digital Finance’ as our global theme.

According to the organisation, by 2024, digital banking consumers are expected to exceed 3.6 billion.

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“In the developing world, the proportion of account owners sending and receiving payments digitally has grown from 57 percent in 2014 to 70 percent in 2017,” stated the stakeholders.

Digital finance and fresh opportunities

According to experts, digital finance brings new opportunities but also new risks that can lead to unfair outcomes for consumers.

The stakeholders also noted that digital finance could increase the likelihood that the most vulnerable are left behind in the FinTech ecosystem in the global economy.

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“Digital technologies are reshaping payments, lending, insurance, and wealth management, becoming a key enabler for consumers of financial services,” they said.

However, in regard to the emerging economic climate in recent years, largely worsened by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, stakeholders said consumers had been increasingly exposed to scams, frauds, phishing, and data malpractices.

In the process, it is observed that several consumers who experience economic hardship are particularly vulnerable to these harms.

Tackling cyberfrauds

In view of the wide-ranging benefits of digital finance and associated risks, Consumers International and its global membership developed a Consumer Vision for ‘Fair Digital Finance’.

The organisation and other stakeholders subsequently, evolved a vision that has set out questions for decision-makers from a consumer rights perspective.

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The essence, Consumer International further stated, is to build a digital financial marketplace that is inclusive, safe, data protected and private, and sustainable for everyone.

The consumer movement marks 15th March with World Consumer Rights Day every year, as a means of raising global awareness about consumer rights and needs.

Celebrating the day is a chance to demand that the rights of all consumers are respected and protected, and to protest against market abuses and social injustices which undermine those rights.

Origin of WCRD

Recall the World Consumer Rights Day was inspired by former United States (US) President John F. Kennedy, who sent a special message to the US Congress March 15, 1962, in which he formally addressed the issue of consumer rights.

He was the first world leader to do so, according to report.

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Two decades after, the consumer movement first marked that date in 1983, and now uses the day every year to mobilise action on important issues and campaigns.

This World Consumer Rights Day will spark the first-ever global conversation on the consumer vision for fair digital finance.

On choice of 2022 WCRD ‘Fair Digital Finance’ theme

ConsumerConnect also gathered as digital technologies are reshaping payments, lending, insurance, and wealth management in economies across the world, these modern electronic systems are fast becoming a key enabler for consumers of financial services.

However, in recent years and as worsened by the outbreak of the damaging COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are increasingly exposed to scams, frauds, phishing and data malpractices in the marketplace.

Consumers who experience economic hardship are particularly vulnerable to these harms.

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To address the most pressing issues faced by consumers in digital finance, Consumers International and our global Membership developed a Consumer Vision for Fair Digital Finance.

The Vision sets out questions for decision makers from a consumer rights perspective to build a digital financial marketplace that is inclusive, safe, data protected and private, and sustainable for everyone.

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As regards the Fair Digital Finance Forum of the 2022 World Consumer Rights Day, Consumers International has said that it is hosting the first ever Fair Digital Finance Forum March 14─18.

The organisation stated that the online gathering would bring together academics, FinTech experts, representatives from governments, businesses/industries, civil society organisations, and the consumer movement to highlight the most pressing challenges in the global digital finance ecosystem and explore how these stakeholders shape fair digital finance for the future.

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