Data Protection in the Financial Sector

Digital technology and data sources are massively used by new financial services, simplifying credit or identity checks in seconds. This enables financial inclusion and thus economic and social participation. Nevertheless, monitoring data collection can be difficult for regulators and supervisory authorities, which can pose a risk to social or financial inclusion. In 2018 the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) adopted a G20 Policy Guide, which contains the legal rights of consumers to access, rectification and deletion of personal data stored by financial service providers The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has adopted a strategy on the use of digitalization for development, which emphasizes the relevance of a properly developed infrastructure of state data.

This factsheet urges the private and public providers to promote initiatives that improve data protection and regulation mechanisms through training and customer information tools, and offers recommendations for stakeholders in international development cooperation.