3.5 Assessment and Selection of Financial Service Providers
The selection of Financial Service Providers follows the procedure for procurement of service described in CARE’s Procurement Manual. Basic understanding about the availability of financial service providers can be gained through market analysis and assessments (Section 3.2 above).
The following checklist can be used to vet service providers which meet CARE procurement standards and specific programmatic requirements:
- Possession of valid license/operational permit;
- Previous or on‐going experience in CBI in emergency or longer‐term settings;
- Scale of those previous CBI;
- Country coverage (# counter, # staff);
- Capacity to make payment (# pers/day, maximum amount/day) even in the aftermath of the shock;
- Registration process for beneficiary HH;
- Money transfer and disbursement process;
- Service costs (both for recipient and sender);
- Access to service for beneficiaries (document needed, existence of a bank account, etc.);
- Time for the whole transfer process CARE>agent>household;
- Monitoring and reconciliation mechanisms of the disbursed money;
- Mistake management;
- Ability and willingness to develop and/or customize services and alter the value of payments within the programme lifespan, if required;
- Credit Rating Certificate from a recognised rating institution (for banking service providers only) for the previous three years. If not available financial accounting systems should be automated and auditable;
- Existence of anti‐money laundering and anti‐terrorism policies;
- Existence of data protection policies;
- Ability and willingness to provide customer service dedicated to the project (accessible directly by the beneficiaries and by the project team);
- Interest in collaborating with CARE for CBI.
