Safeguarding Financial Consumers While Expanding Access to Finance (Online / Remote)
1Summary
Expanding access to financial services means little if the newly included customers are not also protected from unfair practices, hidden fees, or products they do not understand. Consumer protection and financial inclusion succeed or fail together.
This Arab British Fellowship Training Academy programme equips professionals in banking, regulation, and development to manage that balance: building trust in the financial system while widening genuine access to it.
Participants examine the rights and obligations that govern the relationship between financial providers and their customers, alongside the regulatory frameworks that keep that relationship fair and transparent.
The programme builds the professional judgement needed to reduce financial risk, support responsible product use, and design institutional practices that serve both protection and inclusion at once.
2Objectives and target group
Who Should Attend?
- Employees of banks, financial institutions, and regulatory bodies, particularly in compliance, risk, and customer protection.
- Professionals involved in financial inclusion and economic development programmes.
- Anyone interested in financial policy and consumer rights protection.
Knowledge and Benefits:
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:
- Explain the core concepts of financial consumer protection and the international standards behind them.
- Recognise how financial inclusion supports economic and social stability.
- Apply mechanisms that reduce financial risk and protect vulnerable groups.
- Adopt institutional best practices that balance consumer protection with expanding access.
3Course Content
- Module 1: The Risks Financial Consumers Actually Face
- Over-indebtedness risk.
- Financial fraud and product misuse.
- The impact of low financial literacy on decision-making.
- Module 2: Rights and Responsibilities in the Financial Relationship
- The consumer’s right to disclosure, fair treatment, and data privacy.
- Financial institutions’ ethical obligations, risk/fee disclosure, and complaint handling.
- Module 3: Consumer Protection in the Context of the Financial System
- Definition, objectives, and role of protection in building trust.
- Key components of the financial system and the challenges of protecting consumers within it.
- Module 4: Financial Inclusion - Reaching the Underserved
- Definition, dimensions, and target groups of financial inclusion.
- Its role in economic development.
- Module 5: The Tools That Deliver Inclusion
- Basic banking accounts, microfinance, and digital financial services.
- Electronic payment methods and innovative services.
- Module 6: Building Financial Literacy
- Importance of financial literacy in consumer protection.
- Institutions’ role in promoting awareness and designing education programmes.
- Module 7: Where Protection Meets Inclusion
- Balancing service expansion with adequate protection.
- The impact of protection on the sustainability of inclusion, and the role of public policy.
- Module 8: Institutional Governance for Sustainable Practice
- Developing internal protection policies.
- Monitoring compliance and designing sustainable strategies for inclusion and protection.