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Collection of Resources to Implement the Digital Financial Services Standards

Digital financial services (DFS) have great potential to increase inclusion and innovation, but they also create substantial new risks for customers. To mitigate these risks, Cerise+SPTF encourages financial service providers to implement the new Management Standards for the Responsible Provision of Digital Financial Services (the “DFS Standards”).

The DFS Standards gather the best practices identified by financial service providers and other associated stakeholders around the world for offering digital financial services inclusively and responsibly. The DFS Standards integrate many of the indicators and details from the Universal Standards for Social and Environmental Performance Management, but adapted to a digital context, while also adding new management practices that mitigate customer protection risks and harms from the use of digital products and channels.

This page gathers all the resources codeveloped by Cerise+SPTF and its partners to implement the DFS Standards.

Learn more on the DFS Standards

Guides & Evaluation Tool

The DFS Standards Manual

The DFS Standards are a comprehensive manual of the best practices identified by financial service providers and other associated stakeholders around the world for offering digital financial services inclusively and responsibly. The manual is available in English, French and Spanish:

Download in English Télécharger en français Descargar en español

The DFS Standards Evaluation Tool

The DFS Standards Evaluation Tool is a free tool that combines the DFS Standards along with fields to score to what extent a financial service provider is implementing each practice, and graphical functions to display summary results. Financial service providers can use this tool to evaluate and report on their current level of implementation of the DFS Standards.

The tool is available in 3 languages: English, French, and Spanish (you’ll choose your language inside the tool, in the Set-Up tab).

Important: extract the ".zip" file before using the Excel file, otherwise the macros will not work. If needed, you can unblock macros by modifying the properties of the file as follows:

  • Open Windows File Explorer and go to the folder where you saved the file.
  • Right-click the file and choose Properties from the context menu.
  • At the bottom of the General tab, select the Unblock checkbox and select OK.

Get more support here

Download the DFS Standards Evaluation Tool (Excel)

The DFS Standards Assessment Guide

This guide tells assessors how to score each of the indicators and details in the DFS Standards Evaluation Tool.

Specifically, this guide provides a) the rationale for the indicator/detail; b) the criteria to follow when determining the score of yes/partially/no/not applicable; c) which sources to consult to understand the level of performance of the financial service provider.

For now, this assessment guide is available in English only.

Download Assessment Guide in English

Training and E-learning Courses

E-learning Introductory Course

This course is free and takes about 45 minutes to complete. It introduces the DFS Standards. You will learn why standards are important to help financial service providers strengthen their financial sustainability and achieve their customer-centric goals. You will discover the main risks and harms that DFS customers are currently experiencing, what management practices the DFS Standards recommend, and how to use the DFS Standards Evaluation Tool to assess your organization’s current level of implementation of the DFS Standards.

Once you finish it, you can listen to our complementary two-part webinar series for assessors (below).

Training for Assessors on the DFS Standards

Training for Assessors on the DFS Standards in French

Training for Assessors on the DFS Standards in Spanish

Training for Assessors on the DFS Standards in English
Training on the DFS Standards in English for members of the Alliance of Digital Finance and Fintech Associations (Alliance DFA)

Training on the DFS Standards in French for members of the Alliance DFA