Final version of draft law on ‘combating financial exclusion’ approved at ministerial meeting

"The fight against financial exclusion' is the new title of the draft law on financial inclusion and facilitating access to financial services, adopted during a ministerial meeting chaired by Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani on Tuesday in the Kasbah. The final version of the draft law, which aims to generalise social and financial inclusion, was approved and will be submitted to the Cabinet meeting as soon as possible, the Prime Ministry said in a press release. Other legal texts were also amended to bring them into line with the draft law, such as Law No. 35-2016 of April 25, 2016 on the status of the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) with regard to its provisions on financial inclusion. The working session was attended by Minister of Finance, Sihem Boughdiri Nemsia, of Social Affairs, Malek Ezzahi, of Trade and Export Development, Kalthoum Ben Rejeb and of Communication Technologies, Nizar Ben Néji. The draft law concerns the diversification of financial services provided to low-income groups, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and solidarity and social economy enterprises in order to meet their needs, as well as strengthening the supervision by the competent regulatory bodies and customer protection. The draft law has five pillars: These are: promoting access to and use of financial products and services; protecting users of financial services; strengthening financial culture, in addition to the supervisory role of supervisors; and consolidating national strategic governance in support of financial integration and proposing measures to rationalise monetary transactions. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse