FSD 2025 – Trends and Opportunities How to address the upcoming challenges to create inclusive and stable financial systems Financial Systems Development Global Retreat 14 and 15 July 2014, Bad Honnef Concept Note Background Innovation in financial systems is driven by developing and emerging markets in ever more unusual coalitions: mobile phone providers team up with seed companies and sovereign states make business with insurance companies. Privately-led financial services players had started with microcredit and continued with microinsurance. Today digital innovations in frontier markets represent a new terrain for regulators and industry players and at the same time enable the dissemination of renewable energy technologies in remote areas. To support the various players – both private and public – in moving beyond their traditional roles and responsibilities, we want to equip our partners to map new opportunities and mitigate the risks; at the same time ensuring that consumer protection remains the highest principle in Financial Systems Development in 2025. Together we want to continue international efforts in empowering individuals through responsible financial inclusion and contributing to more stable financial sectors. Objective and Agenda During the two day retreat we want to scrutinize the latest trends and developments in the sector and challenge our existing approaches in financial systems and discuss their impact on our way of working. The first day focuses on longer term global trends in the development of financial sectors. A keynote address will inspire the participants by depicting forecasts and emerging trends, as well as providing striking figures for the years to come. A panel of financial systems development experts will then discuss these trends with respect to the tasks and challenges for our future work and try to provide answers to some very important questions:    In what way will digital financial services contribute to achieving large scale financial broadening and deepening impact? What are the implications of the application of digital financial services to our products and services which we are offering up until today? And what additional challenges in terms of “understanding customers” will these future financial services entail? What will the financial system risk landscape look like in 2025? What implications will these risks, and especially newly emerging ones, have on the promoters of financial inclusion (central banks, donors, implementing agencies), on financial institutions themselves, and, most importantly, on clients? Are we ready? For this event, we are delighted to welcome the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), members of our expert network, key project partners, interested GIZ colleagues and the global GIZ Financial Systems Development team based in projects worldwide and at headquarters. The second day will be devoted to knowledge exchange between projects and sharing of lessons learned. This day is exclusive for FSD staff of GIZ and aims at narrowing down insights from the bigger picture on day one, thereby ensuring transferring the specific topics GIZ deals with in its programs. The focus will be on reflecting what those future trends mean for GIZ programs, GIZ partner institutions and GIZ staff. On the one hand, the break-away sessions will be made up around GIZ’s existing working groups (on specific themes including regulation, insurance, agricultural finance, SME finance, responsible finance). On the other hand, there will be space to discuss in which format GIZ will be cooperating in the countries in 2025, taking into account the dynamics that are developing among our partner countries. A market place will allow colleagues to present their work to others during the entire time of the retreat. Logistics The conference will take place at the Seminaris Hotel in Bad Honnef, Germany. Further information on logistical arrangements will be sent to you together with a detailed agenda.