Our vision
An equitable world in which everyone is recognised and empowered to leverage inclusive financial markets to improve their lives and well-being, and to contribute to socioeconomic growth.
FinMark Trust
Capability Statement
01From access to impact
FinMark Trust is an independent, non-profit trust established in 2002 to fight poverty and inequality in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region by ensuring that underserved and vulnerable communities are included in the economy. Our purpose is to make financial markets work for people living in poverty by promoting financial inclusion and inclusive growth.
For more than two decades, our work has created a sustainable impact on the lives of low-income communities, achieved through partnerships with regional authorities, national governments, development partners and the private sector.
Our journey has taught us that access to financial services alone does not automatically translate into improved lives. FinMark Trust therefore pioneered an evolved approach to financial inclusion, developed with our peers in the Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Network, that places financial inclusion within the larger development agenda and emphasises initiatives that deliver real economic impact: jobs, incomes, resilience and sustainable livelihoods. This shift from access to impact anticipated the global dialogue now taking place, including through the G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), to which FinMark Trust contributed actively as a key partner during South Africa’s 2025 G20 Presidency.
accessaccess to financial services
impact
- jobs
- incomes
- resilience
- sustainable livelihoods
Our mission
FinMark Trust works tirelessly to address the challenges that affect the lives of people in poverty across the SADC region. We are convinced that financial inclusion is part of a broader development agenda that will ultimately improve livelihoods. While we continue to focus on the inclusive development of financial markets, our purpose and strategic focus now also emphasise initiatives that result in real economic impact.
Our values
02Our track record and impact
FinMark Trust has a strong track record of catalysing policy shifts, products and services that benefit people in poverty across the SADC region. Highlights of our impact include:
- 43% → 22%Financial exclusion in SADC nearly halved between 2011 and 2025, while formal banking rose from 33% to 41% of adults
- 4.7%Average cost of sending USD55 across borders, down from more than 20% a decade ago — driven by reforms FinMark Trust helped catalyse
- 15.6mFormal remittances processed in the South Africa–SADC corridors in 2024, achieving the 2027 target two years early
- 35+Countries across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean covered by FinScope, the world’s most comprehensive demand-side survey of its kind
- USD 1.4bnSettled monthly through the SADC RTGS system, whose development FinMark Trust supported since 2013
- 15SADC central banks are submitting financial inclusion data to the regional M&E dashboards we support, with 100+ regulators trained
Further achievements that define our track record:
Regional integration and policy influence.
Long-term technical partnership with the SADC Secretariat and the Committee of Central Bank Governors (CCBG), including support for the SADC Strategy on Financial Inclusion and SMEs’ Access to Finance 2023–2028, approved by the SADC Council of Ministers, and national financial inclusion strategies in eight SADC member states.
South Africa’s National Financial Inclusion Policy.
As the World Bank-appointed coordinator for financial inclusion in South Africa, FinMark Trust supported the policy through to Cabinet approval and now supports the National Treasury in developing the National Financial Inclusion Strategy.
SIBE Programme delivery.
As lead consortium member of the EU-funded Support to Improving the Investment and Business Environment (SIBE) Programme, we delivered 71 assignments at a 91% completion rate over four years, strengthening investment frameworks, financial market integration, AML/CFT compliance and consumer protection across the region.
Digital public infrastructure.
Pioneering cross-border eKYC and digital identity work, including a strategic partnership with Co-Develop to support a federated eKYC ecosystem across all 16 SADC member states, aligned with the CCBG’s payment systems integration objectives.
Livelihoods at scale.
Through the Generating Better Livelihoods for Grant Recipients (GBL) project, thousands of social grant recipients have been profiled and supported into skills development, entrepreneurship and employment pathways. A national scale-up strategy for the project is now embedded in government systems.
03From evidence to action
Through our unique approach, we bring real change and benefits to people in the SADC region. As a market facilitator, we combine the evidence base to identify needs and blockages with the technical skills and partnerships to design, pilot and prove solutions in live markets — and then hand over to government and the private sector to roll out at scale, sustainably. Examples include our low-cost remittance corridors, digital financial identity and eKYC pilots, community digitalisation ecosystems, and risk-based AML/CFT approaches adopted by regulators and financial service providers.
We are passionate about Africa and are proudly a vehicle for African professionals who share our excitement about financial and economic inclusion in the SADC region. Our team reflects a diverse range of Africans with deep-rooted ambition and commitment to a financially inclusive region.
- 1identify needs and blockages
- 2design, pilot and prove solutions in live markets
- 3hand over to government and the private sector
- 4roll out at scale, sustainably
Our strategic capabilities
Deep local presence and reach built over more than 20 years, with country presence in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Lesotho and Malawi, programme activity across the region, and ready access to stakeholders and policymakers, including at the SADC Secretariat.
South Africa
Botswana
Zimbabwe
Eswatini
Lesotho
MalawiTrusted technical and implementation partner to the SADC Secretariat, the CCBG and its Payment Systems Subcommittee, the National Treasury of South Africa, the South African Reserve Bank, the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), the Department of Social Development (DSD), and Ministries of Finance and central banks across the region.
Deep relationships across the public and private sectors, including established convening platforms such as the annual SADC Financial Inclusion Forum, which in 2026 marked ten years of regional dialogue.
Capacity to implement substantial regional programmes, backed by strong programme management, data and analytics, monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL), and operational capability.
World-class data and analytics, anchored by the FinScope Consumer and MSME surveys, regional data portals and dashboards, and a growing training and capacity-building offering for regulators, statistics offices and financial sector development partners.
Piloting and proof-of-concept expertise, with a demonstrated ability to test market-led solutions with implementing partners and clear handover plans for scale.
An unrelenting focus on people living in poverty, especially women and youth, whom our programmes disproportionately benefit, with gender intentionality mainstreamed across all our work.
04The SADC challenge: why access is not enough
Poverty remains one of the SADC regional economic community’s most significant challenges, with approximately half of the population living on less than USD1 a day, high youth unemployment, high levels of informality, food insecurity and acute vulnerability to climate change. The financial sector remains relatively underdeveloped, limiting access to finance, particularly for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and constraining long-term, local-currency investment finance.
At the same time, financial inclusion in the region has improved markedly: financial exclusion fell from 43% of adults in 2011 to 22% in 2025. Yet FinScope data across several countries show that, despite gains in access, large segments of the population remain financially vulnerable. This disconnect between rising financial access and stagnant well-being is precisely what FinMark Trust aims to respond to. Our work moves beyond counting accounts to evaluating real improvements in financial health, resilience and ecosystem sustainability. We want inclusion to translate into jobs, incomes and improved livelihoods, especially for women, youth and the informal sector.
Our theory of change targets impact across three clusters: inclusive economic growth (incomes and jobs for low-income people); increased access to basic goods and services; and a stable, sustainable future characterised by resilience, equality and a green economy.
- 1
inclusive economic growth (incomes and jobs for low-income people)
- 2
increased access to basic goods and services
- 3
a stable, sustainable future characterised by resilience, equality and a green economy
05Five priorities for real economic impact
Under our Strategic Framework 2024–2027, our programme work is organised around five strategic priorities, supported by four cross-cutting themes. We leverage regional and country stakeholders to catalyse and embed change, combining regional approaches and joint convening with implementation in Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
BotswanaEswatiniLesothoMalawiSouth AfricaZimbabwei. Regional financial integration, trade and financial inclusion
We support SADC in achieving its regional financial integration and investment objectives under the Finance and Investment Protocol and the SADC Strategy on Financial Inclusion and SMEs’ Access to Finance 2023–2028. Our work spans cross-border remittances and payments, first-mile digitisation, digital financial identity and eKYC, formalisation of cross-border capital flows, informal cross-border trade, and financial inclusion coordination and measurement, including the SADC financial inclusion and remittances data portals and M&E dashboards. Our cross-border remittances work remains ground-breaking: costs on key corridors have fallen towards the G20 target, formal volumes continue to grow. We are also advancing regulatory reforms including a regional CDD/KYC process for remittance service providers to be linked to national ID systems to enable non-bank providers to offer low-risk digital wallets for undocumented migrants.
ii. Growth and resilience of smallholder farmers and MSMEs
Our supplier development programmes in Lesotho, Eswatini and Botswana support smallholder farmers and MSMEs with access to finance, access to markets, productivity improvements and national frameworks for supplier development. We also lead informal MSME support work: in partnership with the World Bank, the National Treasury and the Department of Small Business Development, we developed and are supporting the implementation of a policy framework for informal MSMEs in South Africa. Green finance, climate adaptation and green-economy opportunities, including community incomes through waste management and recycling, form a growing part of this portfolio.
iii. Local community empowerment through digitalisation
Our Inclusive Payments Digitalisation Programme (IPDP), funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and in partnership with the South African Reserve Bank, builds digital ecosystems in low-income communities. The community digitalisation pilots in Thembisa and Hammanskraal have onboarded 355 merchants to encourage the use of digital financial solutions for their businesses. They are supported by digital and financial literacy training and community liaison officers who are available to support the merchants and community with any blockages to digital financial services they encounter. Our digitalising incomes project protects informal and low-income workers, such as tip-dependent service workers, from being left behind in a digitised economy, with over 1,000 participants piloting digital tipping solutions.
355onboarded 355 merchants
1,000+over 1,000 participants piloting digital tipping solutions
iv. Better livelihoods for social protection grant recipients
The Generating Better Livelihoods for Grant Recipients (GBL) project is a flagship, government-led partnership with the DSD, SASSA, the National Development Agency and BRAC International, based on the globally proven BRAC graduation model. The project links Child Support Grant recipients, mostly young women, to employment, entrepreneurship and skills development pathways. The project is now being integrated into government delivery systems with a long-term national scale-up strategy, attracting regional interest for adaptation beyond South Africa.
v. Women and youth empowerment
Gender equality and women’s economic empowerment are mainstreamed across all our programmes, guided by our organisation-wide gender strategy and Gender Action Plan. We have integrated Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) indicators into FinScope surveys, strengthened gender-disaggregated data systems for SADC regulators and financial service providers. We also run targeted diagnostics and interventions for women cross-border traders, women remitters and vulnerable women workers, including in partnership with UN Women. Youth empowerment is prioritised through skills, entrepreneurship and employment linkages across our programmes.
Cross-cutting themes
- 1data and analytics
- 2responsible finance (consumer protection and financial literacy)
- 3the informal sector
- 4learning, knowledge codification, sharing and influencing
Four cross-cutting priorities support all our work: data and analytics; responsible finance (consumer protection and financial literacy); the informal sector; and learning, knowledge codification, sharing and influencing — through which we contribute thought leadership to platforms such as the G20 GPFI, the AFI Global Policy Forum, and the SADC Financial Inclusion Forum.
06From data to decisions
FinMark Trust has always prioritised data and analytics, having pioneered the FinScope survey methodology in the early 2000s. FinScope Consumer and MSME surveys remain the gold standard in demand-side financial inclusion measurement. Conducted in more than 35 countries across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, FinScope surveys inform policy decisions and industry conversations globally. Between full baseline surveys, the lighter-touch mobile FinScope Tracker allows countries to monitor key financial inclusion indicators on an ongoing basis, without the cost and lead time for a full survey cycle.
For more than two decades, FinScope has provided governments, regulators, development partners and the private sector with the evidence needed to design and monitor financial inclusion and economic development interventions. As the originator of the FinScope methodology, FinMark Trust has built one of the world's most extensive demand-side datasets on household and MSME financial behaviour, enabling trend analysis, policy formulation and market development across multiple regions.
Our data capabilities include supply- and demand-side data collection using multiple tools and methodologies (including mixed-mode and mobile approaches), advanced analytics, and the development of insights and evidence to drive impactful, targeted market initiatives. We measure financial health using a UNSGSA-aligned indicator, and we continue to deepen real economy-related measurement in areas such as informality, gender (WEE indicators), climate and green finance, and business resilience.
Our data portals, including the FinMark Trust data portal and the SADC financial inclusion and remittances portals we manage on behalf of the CCBG, help stakeholders make informed, data-driven decisions through accessible interfaces, with datasets available for direct download. We have also formalised a data training and capacity-building offering, spanning virtual and in-country training, field visits and support for regulators, national statistics offices, policymakers, FSD counterparts and financial service providers.
- Supply-side data partnerships
- FinScope Consumer and MSME surveys
- FinScope Tracker: Mixed-mode and mobile collection
- Advanced analytics on informality, gender, climate & resilience
- UNSGSA-aligned financial health indicator
- Webinars, data launches and conferences
- A knowledge hub of our insights
- FinMark Trust data portal
- SADC financial inclusion and remittances portals (for the CCBG)
- Downloadable datasets and dashboards
- Training for regulators and national statistics offices
- Support for policymakers, FSD counterparts and financial service providers
07Partnerships for impact
Our current and recent funding partners include the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the World Bank Group, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Mastercard Foundation, BRAC International, FSD Africa, the South African Reserve Bank, UNCDF, UN Women, UK Aid (FCDO), the European Union (via SADC), the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), Access to Finance Rwanda, Co-Develop, and the Centre for Financial Inclusion.
We are a proud member of the FSD Network, a family of ten financial sector deepening organisations across Africa working to make financial markets work for the poor. In 2026, FinMark Trust also became a member of the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA).
- Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO)
- World Bank Group
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Mastercard Foundation
- BRAC International
- FSD Africa
- South African Reserve Bank
- UNCDF
- UN Women
- UK Aid (FCDO)
- European Union (via SADC)
- Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI)
- Access to Finance Rwanda
- Co-Develop
- Centre for Financial Inclusion
tenfinancial sector deepening organisations across AfricaFSD Network Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA)
08Led with purpose, governed with integrity
Board of Trustees
FinMark Trust is governed by an experienced and independent Board of Trustees that maintains strong oversight of strategy execution, organisational performance and risk management, ensuring alignment with our five-year strategic priorities.
- Cas Coovadia (Chairman)
— CEO of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) and former Managing Director of the Banking Association of South Africa. He sits on the boards of the National Business Initiative, the African Union for Housing Finance and the University of the Witwatersrand.
- Brendan Pearce (Chief Executive Officer)
— oversees FinMark Trust’s strategic direction and operations. His experience includes advising the Managing Director of the Land and Agricultural Bank of South Africa, serving as CEO of MerSETA and LGSETA, leading Umhlaba Development Services, and heading Vodacom’s international legal and regulatory affairs.
- Ethel Matenge-Sebesho
— an experienced banker and financial services professional who previously served on the board of FirstRand Limited and continues to serve on the boards of its subsidiaries and Distell Group Limited.
- Lumkile Mondi
— senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Economic and Business Sciences, former executive at the Industrial Development Corporation, and director of Gemfields Group Limited and Thelo Rolling Stock Leasing.
- Vimbai Tsopotsa
— extensive experience in the South African and Zimbabwean financial sectors, with a focus on banking and ICT; executive director of Amaciko Film Investments and director of Aigle Finance.
- Ishmael Mkhabela
— extensive experience in community organising, governance and housing policy; Chairman of the Steve Biko Foundation and the Johannesburg Inner City Partnership, and Deputy President of the South African Institute of Race Relations.
Leadership team
Our executive and management team combines deep financial sector, data and development expertise:
- Brendan Pearce
— Chief Executive Officer
- Grant Robertson
— Chief Financial Officer
- Dr Kingstone Mutsonziwa
— Executive: Data and Analytics
- Lesego Mashigo
— Head: South Africa Financial Inclusion Programme
- Damola Owolade
— Head: SADC Financial Inclusion Programme
- Shirley Jeoffreys-Leach
— Head: Knowledge Management
- Helen Mosito
— Accounting Manager
They are supported by a diverse, multidisciplinary team of financial inclusion, data and analytics, programme and communications specialists, together with country coordinators in Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini and Malawi and community-based coordinators and linkages facilitators embedded in our programme sites.
Governance and institutional strength
23consecutive unqualified audits
Financial integrity.
FinMark Trust has achieved 23 consecutive unqualified audits, reflecting robust internal controls, compliance processes and prudent stewardship of donor resources. Our financial statements are independently audited in accordance with the IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard and the requirements of the Trust Deed.
Sound governance.
Governance processes are continuously strengthened through the review and implementation of updated policies and frameworks, supporting clear decision-making, accountability and alignment with strategic priorities.
Leadership continuity.
A structured succession framework and ongoing leadership development strengthen our leadership pipeline and institutional resilience.
People and culture.
Annual staff climate surveys reflect high levels of engagement, trust and organisational commitment, supported by a flexible, remote-enabled working environment and regular salary benchmarking.
Growing the next generation.
Our internship programme bridges academic learning and the professional world; in 2025, three interns secured full-time or contractual roles within the organisation.
09Contact us
Get in touch with us to exchange ideas or if you would like to work with us.
- Telephone:
- +27 (0) 67 594 9291
- Address:
- Block B West, First Floor, Central Park, 400 16th Rd, Randjespark, Midrand, 1685, Johannesburg, South Africa