Consumers International

Today, we launch a new report – Maximising consumer voices in digital financial services policy-making: Consumer organisations’ engagement strategies – built upon interviews with Consumers International Members across 13 countries.

As the digital finance policy space becomes more complex, this report showcases powerful examples of innovative consumer organisations who are making strategic use of existing resources, connections, and expertise to drive change towards better digital financial services for consumers.

These guidelines have been specifically designed to support consumer associations in low- and middle-income countries. But with the digital financial services space continually evolving, they will also provide useful reading for those in high-income countries struggling to gain a foothold.

The report forms part of our work through the Fair Digital Finance Accelerator to support and empower consumer organisations in low- and middle-income countries to engage with regulators and champion a safe, fair and sustainable digital finance marketplace.
Alors que l’espace politique de la finance numérique devient plus complexe, ce rapport présente des exemples puissants d’organisations de consommateurs innovantes qui utilisent stratégiquement les ressources, les connexions et l’expertise existantes pour conduire le changement vers de meilleurs services financiers numériques pour les consommateurs.

Ces lignes directrices ont été spécifiquement conçues pour soutenir les associations de consommateurs dans les pays à revenu faible ou intermédiaire. Mais avec l’évolution constante du secteur des services financiers numériques, ils constitueront également des lectures utiles pour les habitants des pays à revenu élevé qui ont du mal à s’implanter.

Le rapport fait partie de notre travail dans le cadre du Fair Digital Finance Accelerator visant à soutenir et à donner aux organisations de consommateurs des pays à revenu faible et intermédiaire les moyens de s’engager auprès des régulateurs et de défendre un marché financier numérique sûr, équitable et durable.

Involving consumers in building fair and responsible artificial intelligence is essential. For World Consumer Rights Day 2024, Consumers International has outlined the priority areas that combine the United Nations Guidelines on Consumer Protection with a set of actions for developers and deployers of commercial generative AI. The four priority areas drive toward a vision of digital markets that are truly open and accessible, support high benchmarks for consumer protection, feature inclusive and representative governance frameworks, and maintain the guarantee of redress and representation for consumers.

Any approaches to develop AI should be informed by the consumer experience of the technology. The priority areas outlined above are informed by the work of our consumer advocates, researchers and intergovernmental agencies. They include the Norwegian Consumer Council, the Consumer Policy Research Centre, the Foundation Model Transparency Index, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).