A04 · PROCESS · checklistGRA dossier · service level R0
GRAFintech NexusEstablished
Readiness checklist

Reader questions and safeguards

The questions a programme in fintech Nexus should be able to answer before a competent institution reviews it.

Publisher
The Global Risks Alliance
Field
Capital markets and investment, Cyber and digital resilience, Digital public infrastructure
01In brief

The short answer.

The Fintech Nexus readiness checklist is a working aid of seven questions a programme should answer before a competent institution reviews it: purpose, evidence, ownership, governance, data, risks and monitoring. It is not a standard; reviewers apply their own rules, and decision holders such as central banks as operators and overseers keep their authority.

02Canvas

Scoping to review.

Canvas · scoping to reviewDesign, not a record
Reader questions and safeguards: the policy cycleA problem reaches the agenda, options are formulated and appraised, consultation tests them, the mandate holder decides, implementation and monitoring follow, and evaluation feeds the next agenda. Design of the process, not a record of a run.

Fig.A programme from scoping to the owner's decision. Design, not a record.

03Geography

Activity and exposure in East Africa.

For reader questions and safeguards, in GRA's spatial-finance reading, the map opens on population density and night lights with night lights tonight from NASA GIBS, framed on East Africa; every other NASA layer, live feed and forecast waits in the layer list.

The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.

Layers 2

Activity and exposure, for this page

Latest available

NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth

Loading the latest NASA imagery.

Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.

For reader questions and safeguards, in GRA's spatial-finance reading, the map opens on population density and night lights with night lights tonight from NASA GIBS, framed on East Africa; every other NASA layer, live feed and forecast waits in the layer list.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.

Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · GDACS · CIESIN/Columbia, NASA SEDAC HBASE · NASA/NOAA VIIRSSources and licences

  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). CC BY 4.0
  • VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), VIIRS 375 m active fire product, NASA LANCE; vector tiles via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
  • © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
  • Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
  • Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
  • Live: GDACS (EC JRC / UN OCHA) Events are indicative, not official warnings.
  • Context: CIESIN/Columbia, NASA SEDAC HBASE. Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University, and NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC): Global Human Built-up And Settlement Extent (HBASE) 2010; Seto, Guneralp and Hutyra 2012, Global Grid of Probabilities of Urban Expansion to 2030; Global Urban Heat Island (UHI) Data Set, 2013.
  • Observed (EO): NASA/NOAA VIIRS (Suomi NPP). We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
  • Optional layers (35 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.

Layers and dates

  • Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
  • Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
  • Land surface temperature, day, 8-day composite: VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day, NASA LANCE · 14 Sep 2026
  • Active fires and thermal anomalies, last day: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026

04Checklist

Seven questions.

  1. 01

    Purpose

    What problem does the programme address, and for whom?

  2. 02

    Evidence

    What hazard, exposure and vulnerability evidence supports it, with what uncertainty?

  3. 03

    Ownership

    Who owns the programme and answers for it?

  4. 04

    Governance

    How are decisions taken, recorded and challenged?

  5. 05

    Data

    Which data is used, on what terms, and how is it protected?

  6. 06

    Risks

    What could go wrong, and how is it managed?

  7. 07

    Monitoring

    How will results be measured and reported?

05Payment transparency

Preparing for the revised Recommendation 16.

  • Originator and beneficiary data: the revised Recommendation 16, adopted in June 2025 with implementation expected by the end of 2030, requires more complete and structured information on cross-border payments.
  • Fraud controls: the revision's stated aims include fraud prevention; how far it expects checks that a beneficiary name matches the account is set out in the FATF text and its implementation guidance.
  • Message standards: ISO 20022 structured data carries the fields the revision expects.
  • Card and virtual asset flows: scope and exemptions differ; each flow type is mapped separately.
06Corridors

Where payment risk is geographic.

Remittance and trade corridors concentrate both payment volume and financial-crime risk. Mapping corridors against connectivity, power reliability and hazard shows where a payment service would fail first in a disaster, exactly when remittances matter most. Digital payments evidence continues at GCRI digital payments and services.

07Key terms

Terms used on this page.

Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.

TermDefinition
Due diligenceThe independent investigation a lender or investor carries out before committing finance.
Risk ownerThe person or entity with the accountability and authority to manage a risk.
Data lineageA record of where data came from and how it was transformed before use.
Theory of changeA stated chain of causes from a programme's activities to its intended outcomes, used to plan evaluation.
08Sources

Where this page's references lead.

The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.

09Questions

Questions and answers.

Is the checklist a standard?
No. It is a working aid. Institutions apply their own standards and rules.
Fintech Nexus

Bring your expertise to this field.

The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.

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