DFS Risk Assessment for a Microfinance Bank

Case Study: DFS Risk Assessment for a Microfinance Bank

A microfinance bank, through an international financial institution required a risk assessment to be conducted on its Digital Financial Services (DFS) products.

The Challenge

To identify the risks faced by the bank, highlight those with the greatest impact on the business, and recommend appropriate and specific mitigations.

Our Approach

Following a walkthrough of banking channels and infrastructure, a risk register outlining the issues identified was prepared, in addition to a diagnostic report and training material on key risk areas for the stakeholders, i.e. strategic, technology, operational and fraud risks. A training was then conducted at the microfinance institution.

Key Results Achieved

1. Critical weaknesses in the DFS environment leading to technology and operational risks with potential negative impact to the business were identified early.
2. Mitigations for end-point management, data and system integrity, information confidentiality, and audit log management were developed.
3. The institution realised a significant reduction in financial, fraud and reputation risks.

Key Terms

DFS - Digital Financial Services
USSD - Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (Communication Protocol)
STK - SIM Toolkit
POS - Point-of-Sale System
ATM - Automated Teller Machine.