Our Financial Inclusion Week events, latest research, and more.

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More evidence, less poverty

IPA Consumer Protection Quarterly

Issue No. 18 – September 2025

Welcome back to the Consumer Protection Quarterly, IPA's newsletter on the latest financial consumer protection research across the globe. This newsletter is part of IPA's Consumer Protection Research Initiative

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(CPRI). Each quarter, we send you the latest research, insights, and inspiration we’re reading related to financial consumer protection. If you’d like to get in touch or have something to share, please reach out to [email protected]

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You are receiving this email because of your past participation in IPA consumer protection or financial inclusion events, and/or because you signed up for our consumer protection mailing interest list

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What's New and What's Next

What's New: Webinar | What Digital Financial Services Users Are Really Facing: New Insights from Nigeria’s Consumer Protection Survey

Digital finance is booming in Nigeria—but so are consumer risks. Nearly 1 in 4 users faced hidden fees or fraud in the past year, yet only half of those experiencing these challenges sought redress. Watch our latest webinar

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to learn more about the findings from our Nigerian Consumer Protection in Digital Financial Services Survey

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, which took a deep dive into how Nigerians are using digital financial services (DFS), the challenges they face, and how they seek redress.



What's Next: Webinars | Financial Inclusion Week 2025

This year’s Financial Inclusion Week is right around the corner. From October 6-9, 2025, the Center for Financial Inclusion will host live sessions, as well as pre-recorded sessions, on building resilience and well-being during rising uncertainties. You can register here

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, and don’t forget to add IPA’s sessions to your watch list:

🕙Live Sessions:

Tues. Oct 7th @ 8:15AM EDT: Protecting Consumers in the Digital Finance Era: Insights from New Global Survey Data

Wed. Oct 8th @ 11:15AM EDT: Financial Freedom: Understanding Domestic Financial Abuse and Our Consumer Protection Responsibilities

📌Pre-recorded Sessions:

Linking Evidence to Action: How Financial Services Can Support Climate Resilience

Banking on Each Other: Savings Groups as a Path to Financial Resilience

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What's Next: Survey Results | Financial Consumer Protection Surveys

As part of CPRI Phase 2, IPA is conducting multi-country Financial Consumer Protection Surveys to deepen understanding of the challenges consumers face when using DFS, building on insights from four previous survey rounds. In the coming months, we’ll release results from ten countries, shedding light on DFS access and usage, the risks and obstacles consumers encounter, how they seek redress, and the broader impact these experiences have on DFS adoption. Keep an eye out for updates, and in the meantime, you can check out the earlier survey results here

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What's New: Podcast | Mobile Money in Ghana: Lessons for Boosting Financial Inclusion

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On a recent episode of VoxDevTalks, Francis Annan spoke about his research into mobile money markets in Ghana. In the first episode

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, Francis highlighted his work supported by CPRI

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, in which he tested whether or not increasing the number of mobile money vendors would reduce the amount of agent misconduct. Francis mentioned in the episode that with increased competition, there was reduced misconduct, stating “Incumbents… were less likely to commit misconduct…there was some pressure on incumbents to promote consumer protection practices in the marketplace.”



What's New: Research Paper | Incentives and Endorsement for Technology Adoption

CPRI supported work in Ghana to test how to encourage the uptake of digital financial services using incentives for individuals or peer endorsements. Researchers found that small financial incentives increased adoption by 60 percent, and combining these incentives with peer endorsement doubled the effect. Those encouraged by peers also saved 30 percent more, showing that trust and social support are critical to expanding financial inclusion. Read more about the study here

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What's New: IPA Recognition | BSP Head Office Honors Outstanding Partners

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) recognized 18 outstanding institutional partners of its Head Office, including IPA, during the 2025 Outstanding BSP Stakeholders Appreciation Ceremony

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(OBSAC) held on 18 July 2025.

IPA has been working with BSP since 2020, including work assessing data generated by their customer assistance chatbot

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, analyzing customer complaints data, developing an automated mystery shopping tool to assess FSPs’ chatbots, and measuring compliance with BSP’s disclosure and transparency requirements.

Things that Make Us Think

Blog: Access to financial services is growing fast—three-quarters of adults in low- and middle-income countries now have an account, and digital payments are surging. But as with medicine, access alone isn’t enough if the “treatment” isn’t safe or effective. A new blog by CGAP breaks down the five biggest risks consumers face with digital finance and what can be done to make inclusion more responsible. Read more here

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Blog: Consumer protection can’t be an afterthought in open finance—it must be a cornerstone. Without strong safeguards on data privacy, consent, liability, and redress, open finance risks leaving behind the very groups it aims to empower: women, informal workers, and micro-entrepreneurs. Read more in a new blog

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from the Alliance for Financial Inclusion.

Report: How do dark patterns in digital finance impact low-and moderate-income users? And what do these patterns typically look like? Read more in a new report

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from MicroSave Consulting, which tackles these questions and highlights a call to action from stakeholders to address these ongoing issues.

Blog: How can financial authorities use gender data to fulfill their diverse mandates? In a CGAP blog

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, the authors aim to tackle this question under five key areas:

Incorporating gender into regulatory data will help FSAs meet their objectives

Gender data is an imperative for customer-centric consumer protection

FSAs can use gender data to explore potential connections between stability risks and gender within the customer base and among the workforce

Capital market development analysis could be strengthened by incorporating a gender lens

FSAs can also use gender data to inform sustainability analyses and other purposes

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