Rapid Account Opening in a Pandemic

Governments and funders worldwide are responding to the severe economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic by delivering social assistance payments to families and individuals. Increasingly, they are turning to digital delivery for disbursements, which has accelerated the demand for financial services providers to be able to open formal financial accounts rapidly and with minimal or zero physical contact with customers.

This Briefing provides guidance for those designing and deploying social assistance payments to help them work with financial sector regulators and implement social assistance payments that facilitate rapid, remote account opening in compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) rules.