608695 - Empower Finance Reimagining Services for Safety APAC

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Summary of Advisory Services Project Information

Project Number

608695

Primary Business Area

Other

Disclosure Date

Mar 13, 2025

Country

East Asia and Pacific Region

Region

East Asia and the Pacific

IFC Approval Date

Jul 26, 2024

Status

Active

Estimated Total Budget

$937,079.00
(Project budget includes all project-funded activities)

Last Updated Date

Mar 18, 2025

Project Estimated Start Date

Jul 16, 2024

Project Estimated End Date

Feb 28, 2026

Client Legal Name

COMMERCIAL BANK OF CEYLON PLC ,Laxmi Sunrise Bank Limited ,NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT BANK PLC ,SIDDHARTHA BANK LIMITED ,NMB BANK LIMITED

Project Description

Through the Empower Finance project IFC will bring financial institutions across four markets in Asia and the Pacific, together with global experts in financial abuse prevention, to share information, good practices, tools and solutions to help the financial institutions protect customers and their institutions from financial abuse. The project will help participating financial institutions ensure their products, services and technology are designed to minimize potential risks from financial abuse. The project will include a six-month peer learning partnership, through which the participating financial institutions will participate in monthly workshops and will be supported to develop a company-level action plan for tackling financial abuse. Following the initial workshops, IFC will provide tailored support to the companies to help them implement their action plans. Throughout the course of the project IFC will monitor progress across the financial institutions and will produce a public report at the end of the project highlighting good practice examples. IFC will also convene a public event at the close of the project to share the tools, experience and lessons learned with other financial institutions, multilateral development banks and other relevant stakeholders.

Development Results

The overall objective of this project is to support at least 8 financial institutions across Papua New Guinea, Nepal and Sri Lanka to take action to prevent and address financial abuse. The project also aims to expand the global knowledge base through developing business solutions, tools and case studies to demonstrate the impact of addressing financial abuse and to help scale the solutions to other financial institutions and markets. The project will do this by providing support to participating financial institutions in defining their role in preventing and responding to financial abuse, facilitating regular learning sessions, promoting cross-collaboration, alongside guiding them to conduct internal diagnostics and develop and implement action plans. The project is also developing new tools and resources which it will trial with the participating companies, as such it should be considered a pilot project and an opportunity to test and refine IFC’s approach to this topic. By its close, the project is expected to deliver the following outcomes and impacts: 1. At least 6 banks have implemented at least 1 recommendation to address financial abuse. 2. At least 4 banks report improved business performance. 3. Approximately 700,000 people are reached with improved financial services. 4. At least one follow-on IFC project is designed and utilizes the tools and guidance created under this project.

Indicator	Cumulative
Number of entities reporting improved performance (e.g., improvements in productivity, accountability, operations, loan terms, valuations)	0
KM project: Number of follow-on IFC projects that benefited from the KM project	null
Number of reports (assessments, surveys, manuals, Phase I/strategic option reports, research, analytical, evaluations, etc.) completed	null

E&S Risks / Impacts and Mitigation

Performance Standard	Description and Potential Impact	Mitigation
PS 1. Assessment and Management of Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts	As part of its Due Diligence, and as mandated by IFC Sustainability Policy, IFC team has screened this project to assess consistency with IFC's Performance standards. Environmental and social risks will be further reviewed throughout the life-cycle of the project.	IFC advice will be provided in a manner consistent with the principles of the relevant Performance Standards. The IFC team will assist the client, as final decision maker, in gaining a good understanding of IFC's Performance Standards, and provide recommendations for appropriate mitigation measures whenever warranted.

This Summary of Advisory Services Project Information (ASPI) is prepared by IFC to disclose a factual summary of the main elements of this advisory services project. It may also include findings and recommendations related to environmental and social considerations regarding this project. The purpose of the ASPI is to enhance the transparency of IFC's activities. For any project documentation or data included or attached herein, whether prepared by the project sponsor or otherwise, authorization has been given for public release by the client. IFC considers that this ASPI is of adequate quality for release to the public, but has not necessarily independently verified all of the project information therein.
It is distributed within sixty days of project's approval and may be updated periodically afterwards. Total budget and start dates are estimates only. The following ASPI is disclosed in accordance with IFC's Access to Information Policy (AIP) that went into effect on January 1, 2012.

The map is for illustrative purposes and does not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of the World Bank, concerning the legal status of any country or territory or concerning the delimitation of frontiers or boundaries. Country borders or names do not necessarily reflect the World Bank Group's official position. In some cases, available project location information is limited to the country of the project's activities. Locations are approximate.

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