Effective approaches and lessons learnt to protect financial consumers and support financial inclusion in the context of COVID-19

Background and policy context

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of societies and economies around the world.  Among other things, the pandemic has significantly affected many financial consumers in terms of their access to and use of personal financial services.  In turn, the pandemic has had a significant impact on policy makers and oversight authorities responsible for financial consumer protection and financial inclusion in terms of implementing and monitoring measures to protect and support financial consumers to weather the crisis.

Building on work since the start of the pandemic, and in support of the Italian Presidency of the G20, in 2021 the OECD will undertake a follow-up project to understand effective approaches and lessons learnt from COVID-19 in terms of protecting financial consumers and supporting financial inclusion.  This work will be undertaken on behalf of the G20/OECD Task Force on Financial Consumer Protection Task Force and the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion.

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Instructions for completing the Questionnaire

• Please answer Section 1 (General) and then Sections 2 through 6 as relevant to the remit of your organisation (i.e., Consumer Credit, Banking & Payment Services, Insurance, Retail Investments, Pensions).
• All questions are optional and partial responses are acceptable, for example if you do not know the answer to a question, the question is not applicable or if information is not available.
• The Questionnaire can be fully completed with public and non-confidential information.  Should you wish to provide any confidential information, please ensure it is clearly marked as such against the relevant answer.
• We encourage you to include links to relevant websites, reports or other documents in your responses. Please type out the full link (e.g., www.oecd.org), rather than pasting a hyperlink.
• You can save the Questionnaire and return to it as needed (scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Save progress and resume later").
• When you get to the bottom of each page, please click "Next". When you have completed the Questionnaire, please click "Submit". 
• Delegates are kindly requested to complete the Questionnaire by 7 May 2021.
• Please contact the Secretariat [sally.day-hanotiaux@oecd.org] with any questions or clarifications.

Definitions

Digital payments means all transactions involving an electronic transfer of funds (including mobile payments, online payments, mobile wallets, apps, contactless payments and payments made with payment cards).

Emergency access to credit refers to any measures designed to grant consumers access to credit to cover financial difficulties arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, this could include a temporary increase in a customer's borrowing limit (for an overdraft, personal loan or credit card, for example), or in the case of mortgages, it could mean waiving certain requirements to expedite a borrower's access to a mortgage.

Financial consumer protection measure(s) means any measure(s) specifically designed to protect or safeguard the interests of financial consumers in relation to financial products and services and/or their dealings with financial services providers.

Financial inclusion measure(s) means any measure(s) specifically designed to support access to financial products and services for consumers.