Financial inclusion, fintech, and digital currencies

ITU ​Security Clinics:  Offfer​ guidance to regulators and DFS providers on adopting the DFS Security recommendations ​ develope​d under FIGI. ​

ITU's Security Lab for Digital Financial Services can help regulators verify that DFS security best practices are being followed.​

• DFS security assurance framework
• DFS security audit guidelines
• Security audit of various DFS applications
• Security testing for USSD- and STK-based DFS applications​

Security best practices help DFS providers, network operators, and regulators to safeguard the telecommunication channel as well as mobile devices.

• Signalling System no.7 vulnerabilities and mitigation measures for DFS transactions
• Security analysis of the KaiOS feature phone platform for DFS applications
• Recommendation ITU-T Q.3057  "Signalling requirements and architecture for interconnection between trustable network entities"

Trust in digital finance requires consumer competence; the consideration of the data privacy dimensions of big data and AI and machine learning; and the prevention of unlicensed digital investment schemes (digital ponzi schemes). 

• DFS consumer competency framework
• Big data, machine learning, consumer protection and privacy
• Unlicensed digital investment schemes

​​Strong authentication is key to protecting the confidentiality and integrity of digital financial transactions.

• Implementation of secure authentication technologies for DFS
• Developer resources  to implement Recommendation ITU-T X.1277  Fast Identity Online (FIDO) "Universal Authentication Framework"
• e-KYC (Know-Your-Customer) innovation use cases within the financial sector

​A user’s quality of experience is critical to facilitate the transition from cash to digital financial services. Performance and user-experience metrics play an important role in this evolution. ​

• Methodology for measurement of quality of service (QoS) key performance indicators (KPIs) for digital financial services
• Piloting the methodology for measurement of QoS KPIs for digital financial services in Ghana
• Methodology for measurement of QoS KPIs for inter-operator and cross-border peer-to-peer money transfer​

​ITU standards for digital finance address economics and policy, security, blockchain, identity management, and quality of service and user experience.​​

• Recommendation ITU-T D.263 "Costs, charges and competition for mobile financial services"​
• Recommendation ITU-T Q.3057  "Signalling requirements and architecture for interconnection between trustable network entities"​
• Technical Report on QSTR-USSD - Low resource requirement, quantum resistant, encryption of USSD messages for use in financial services​
• Recommendation ITU-T G.1033  "Quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) aspects of digital financial services"
• Recommendation ITU-T P.1502  "Methodology for QoE testing of digital financial services"
• ITU standards development for distributed ledger technologies and e-services  includes work on digital evidence services, digital invoices and smart contracts
• ITU standards for identity management inlcude Recommendations ITU-T X.1252 , X.1254 ,  X.1277  and X.1278

• I​TU Security Clinics on Digital Financial Services
  
• Digital currencies: DC³ Conference​​​