Antonia Esser is an Engagement Manager at Cenfri, a financial sector development think thank focused on developing markets based in Cape Town, South Africa. Antonia is a development economist by training and has been researching the barriers to remittances particularly in Africa for the past five years. She closely works with both private and public sector on reducing the cost of remittances and increasing the access to remittances channels, particularly for vulnerable population segments. Apart from researching remittance dynamics, she tutors regulators from developing markets across the globe on how to best regulate for innovation in the domestic and cross-border payments space and is currently providing technical assistance to policy makers and regulators in the payments space in Africa with the support from FSD Africa. Her main focus areas include the role of regulation in remittances and in particular in the digital identity, licensing and risk-based approach to AML/CFT.