The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) has appointed Deputy Governor of Brazil's central bank Isaac Ferreira as the new chairman. Ferreira will succeed outgoing chairman Benno Ndulu. Speaking at the AFI's 9th Global Policy Forum in Sharm El-Sheikh, Ferreira said that UN aims to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with the access and usage of technology in financial services. The United Nations 2030 Agenda targets the elimination of poverty and focuses on the importance of financial inclusion, he added. "We have to prepare ourselves to advance to the global level of financial inclusion … we can invest in this alliance in terms of partnership, experiences' exchange, and research," Ferreira said. The new AFI chairman highlighted the importance of giving an extra concern to the citizens who are not included in the financial services. "We appreciate in our work the role of technology and innovation in promoting financial inclusion and the role of the FinTech in offering financial services in a flexible way to eliminate bureaucracy," Ferreira added. FinTech is a new technology and innovation that aims to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Ferreira referred to AFI's Financial Inclusion Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean, saying that the central banks of the Portuguese-speaking countries have agreed on teaching financial inclusion to each other and using the diversity in the inclusion services. He noted that although the alliance is new, it has taken a prominent position among the international assemblies, adding that it is important to keep investing in the alliance and the members' contributions through the partnership of the public and private sectors. It is necessary for the alliance to present the role of technology and innovation in promoting the financial inclusion initiative, Ferreira said, adding that technological advance has to be accompanied by a regulatory environment to secure technology users in the financial services. Ferriero further stressed on the importance of preserving the cooperative element of the alliance. The two-day forum on financial inclusion kicked off in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on Wednesday, organised by the AFI, with the participation of around 95 countries of the alliance's members.
