Responsible Inclusive Finance Facility for Southeast Asia (RIFF-SEA)

Our Work in Southeast Asia

Home to some 700 million people, Southeast Asia is one of the most diverse regions in the world–ethnically, religiously, linguistically, politically, socio-economically. It includes advanced economies such as Singapore and Malaysia, newly industrialized Indonesia, and developing countries such as Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. With generous support from the government of Luxembourg, Cerise+SPTF has been working since 2018 to advance better financial services in the region.

The Responsible Inclusive Finance Facility in Southeast Asia (RIFF-SEA) works to advance social and environmental performance management (SEPM) practices in the region. Through co-financing and training activities, RIFF-SEA has increased local consultants’ capacity for SEPM, raised awareness about SEPM among regulators and investors, and helped financial service providers better understand the importance of SEPM, assess their practices, and improve their performance—all with the goal of ensuring that financial services protect and benefit low-income Souheast Asian clients.

The COVID-19 pandemic, the corresponding push to digital, and an evolving industry have made such client-centricity more vital than ever. SEPM strengthened institutions’ commitment to clients during COVID, and it will have to be an integral part of the industry’s recovery to ensure low-income clients are protected. Meanwhile, as financial service providers increasingly move to digital, low-income clients risk being left behind without a deliberate focus on serving them responsibly.

RIFF-SEA’s goal is to advance the social performance management practices of financial service providers serving low-income clients in Southeast Asia so that the region’s financial systems will include, protect, and benefit these clients.

RIFF-SEA Activities

Our work in Southeast Asia falls within two broad categories: training and co-financing activities.

Trainings

Introductory training on responsible inclusive finance
Training of client protection assessors
Training of SPI5 / SPI Online auditors
Training technical assistance (TA) providers on client protection
Training TA providers on other aspects of social and environmental performance management (SEPM)
Training regulators on SEPM

Co-Financing Activities

SPI5 / SPI Online audit plus additional support
Client protection assessment
Digital readiness assessment
Upgrade project chosen by the provider
Specialized training for the provider on an aspect of SEPM of its choosing
Social Rating

Select Past Projects

Audits & Action Plans

Lao Microfinance Association

The Lao Microfinance Association applied to RIFF-SEA for support for a joint project involving four of its member institutions.

Measuring social outcomes

ECLOF Philippines

ECLOF Philippines will use RIFF SEA funding to implement the Financial Inclusion Index, an initiative from 60 Decibels.

Better Tech to Serve the Rural

ACE Vietnam

ACE Vietnam is using follow-up funding from RIFF-SEA to build on the work we originally co-financed in 2019-2020 to enhance customer satisfaction across all four of its branches.

Financial Literacy E-Learning App

Monkiri

Customer hotline

YCAB Ventures

Digital Readiness Assessment

CAMMA Microfinance

Other Activities in the Region

Along with the co-financing and capacity-building work RIFF-SEA does with individual institutions, Cerise+SPTF works at the market-systems level in our countries of operation throughout Southeast Asia. We have worked with the Philippines to ensure that social performance management principles are incorporated into the regulations governing microfinance providers. In Cambodia, we are working closely with the regulators, Cambodian Microfinance Association, Association of Banks in Cambodia, and other stakeholders to urgently address issues of client protection.

Safe Finance program for clients

The market-systems approach we take to our work means that Cerise+SPTF works with all the major stakeholder groups who work with microfinance clients. We also seek to influence the behaviors of clients themselves—especially ensuring that they not only know they have multiple avenues of recourse if subjected to abusive practices, but more importantly, feel empowered and unafraid to use them. Cerise+SPTF worked with Cambodian Microfinance Association, Association of Banks in Cambodia, and the National Bank of Cambodia to design the Safe Finance program, being piloted through 2024 in select markets, and are supporting the Association and the regulator on its implementation.

Client protection workshop for CEOs

Given our strong belief that commitment to client protection comes from the top or not at all, Cerise+SPTF has been conducting high-level briefings on client protection in Cambodia. These briefings are mandatory: the National Bank of Cambodia requires all top leadership to attend as part of its response to troubling signs of over-indebtedness and other risks to clients in the Cambodian market. Since this effort was launched in June 2023, we have briefed more than 220 top executives and shareholders. Cerise+SPTF will lead eight sessions in total to reach the shareholders and CEOs of every major financial service provider in Cambodia, including the largest commercial banks. These briefings are not auditorium-style lectures: they are intensive, small-group engagements.

RIFF-SEA News

Press Releases

January 2023

Cerise+SPTF delivers a training in Vientiane, Laos for senior managers of financial institutions, under the patronage of H.R.H. the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and with the participation of Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, M. Franz Fayot.

Generous funding for the grant-making and operational expenses of RIFF-SEA has been provided by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Luxembourg.

Practical Dreamers

Cerise+SPTF are practical dreamers. Since our origins in the late 1990s-early 2000s (when inclusive finance was better known as microfinance), there has been steadily growing interest in social performance: in making sure that vulnerable low-income clients are not exploited, and that products and services help create better lives. Many organizations have published high-level principles and frameworks. Cerise+SPTF translate those aspirations into concrete, practical actions.

Cerise+SPTF is a joint venture between SPTF | US, SPTF | Europe, and Cerise. Cerise+SPTF pursues a common strategic plan and shares resources under a Memorandum of Understanding. For legal purposes, we remain three separate entities incorporated in, and subject to the laws of, our respective home countries.

Lao Microfinance Association used RIFF-SEA funding to conduct SPI (Social Performance Indicator) audits for member institutions Champalao, Next, Saleumsouk, and Xayniyom. Based on the audit findings, the Association helped develop individualized action plans and held a workshop to discuss results.

"We plan to continue to work with RIFF-SEA in the future. There are more member institutions interested in applying to RIFF-SEA funding. The funding is attracting investors in Laos and the institutions are seeing positive benefits."

ECLOF Philippines is an affiliate of ECLOF International (EI) and will be the third EI affiliate to undertake such a project. Lean Data complements the existing social performance management framework as a tool for “pragmatic impact assessment” aimed at measuring and strengthening the social outcomes of ECLOF Philippines work.

"ECLOF would absolutely apply for RIFF-SEA funding again. It is great to have this facility which is relatively friction-free and makes it clear what types of projects are eligible. Very much appreciated."

The 2019-2020 customer survey found that customers preferred ACE’s social training offerings and their interactions with staff, but found the costs of ACE’s loans to be expensive compared to other institutions’. A key driver for ACE’s operational costs was the outdated technology which ACE uses in remote areas for both portfolio management and social performance indicator tracking.

With follow-on funding support from RIFF SEA, ACE will upgrade its management information systems and implement mobile payments to reduce loan costs to clients, increase outreach to rural areas, and more easily track and report social indicators. The new system will enable loan officers to use digital devices to manage transactions with clients, and allow clients to interact and transact with ACE through an app.

Monkiri is a mobile e-learning application focused on financial literacy and inclusion. RIFF-SEA support enabled Monkiri to develop and deliver e-learning financial literacy modules to help people cope with the financial burdens caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic. The target audience were users in Southeast Asia, but the lessons were also made available globally. As the effects of the pandemic have eased, the content is also being updated for relevance to health emergencies and other situations.

Monkiri uses a ‘”drip learning” approach. Each of the lessons was divided into modules designed to take 5-10 minutes to complete. This approach allows users to complete lessons at their own pace, on their own time, a method particularly effective for digital learning aimed at adults. Covering a full range of financial literacy topics, including consumer rights and responsibilities, financial mapping and budgeting, choosing and using financial services and providers, and managing digital finance, the Monkiri pilot in Southeast Asia reached more than 4500 people with hands-on, interactive skills-building content.

In response to COVID-19, YCAB Ventures, an Indonesian microfinance institution, established new operational policies and started providing clients with hand sanitizer, masks, and support to pay utility bills. But YCAB staff, like workers everywhere, were limited to working from home, a situation which created significant challenges for regular operations, let alone emergency response. With RIFF-SEA support, YCAB was able to set up a customer hotline to convey urgent information to clients about the new support available as well as get feedback directly from clients about their situation and needs.

CAMMA, a Cambodian microfinance institution, was interested in rolling out digital lending for the usual reasons: to increase its staff’s productivity and efficiency, to facilitate data-gathering that could be used to better understand and meet client preferences, and to make its services more convenient for clients, especially during the COVID lockdowns. CAMMA was eager also to harness the power of digital to deliver more customized experiences for its clients and to pass on the cost savings that the enhanced efficiency would deliver. With grant funding from RIFF-SEA, CAMMA hired a technical assistance provider to conduct a detailed assessment of CAMMA’s current operations, customer segments, and processes, and to assess the optimal design and delivery of its digital lending. The assessment focused on:

Customer-centric digital lending product design
Development and digital lending, bearing in mind CAMMA’s capacities
Readiness and gaps in preparation for digital lending

Following the assessment, CAMMA developed a plan for an end-to-end process for disbursing and collecting the loans digitally, eliminating or minimizing the need for customers to visit branches unless they so chose.