Programme spending, with limits and a clear record.
Run a caseload of cards from one console, for the households or students your programme supports in another country. You set the rules. A licensed partner where they live verifies each person and issues the card in their own name. Approved purchases appear in a record your team can report from, with updates as payments clear or change status.
Pre-launch · no signed partners or live transactions yet · cards would be issued by licensed partners
Less chasing, fewer hand-offs, a record you don’t have to rebuild.
How a cross-border support programme usually runs today, and how we’re designing Amanah to run it.
| Task | Usually today | With Amanah (proposed) |
|---|---|---|
| Getting support to people | Cash, bank payments or vouchers passed through country offices, implementing partners and local disbursers. | A card in each person’s own name, issued by a licensed partner where they live. |
| Keeping it to purpose | Vouchers redeemable at enrolled traders, reconciled from their returns. | Shop categories you choose, applied by the card issuer at the till. No trader enrolment. |
| Proof of use | Receipts, partner returns and spreadsheets, collected weeks or months later. | Shop, category, amount and status recorded as each purchase happens. |
| Exceptions | Calls and emails through the chain to stop or change a payment. | Freeze a card, change a limit or pause a cohort from the console, with two-person approval. |
| Grant close | Chasing unspent balances back from partners and accounts. | The proposed design funds purchases at authorisation, without a prefunded balance owned by each recipient. Pending holds, refunds and settlement still need reconciliation. |
Food is the urgent part. The bills are the part that compounds.
Relief is built to deliver food and shelter. A household’s obligations keep running while it has no income: power, water, rent, school fees and the phone relatives call on. Missed payments turn into disconnection charges, reconnection deposits and a child dropped from enrolment.
Food and daily needs
Groceries, supermarkets · MCC 5411 · 5499Bought where shops are trading, alongside your distribution.
Shelter repairs
Hardware, building supplies · MCC 5251 · 5211Roofing sheets, tools and materials to make a home safe again.
Electricity and water
Utilities · MCC 4900Kept on, instead of reconnected later at a penalty.
Rent
Property managers, rentals · MCC 6513Paid to landlords and managers who accept cards, so a tenancy isn’t lost.
School fees
Schools, colleges · MCC 8211 · 8220Enrolment held through the term instead of dropped and restarted.
Phone, clinic and pharmacy
Telecoms, pharmacies, hospitals · MCC 4814 · 5912 · 8062The line families are reached on, and treatment that can’t pause.
These work only where the shop or biller accepts card payments and its systems are running. Many billers take cards online, so a household can keep them paid from wherever it has moved to. Not every landlord, school or utility does, and networks can be down after a storm. Distribution and cash stay in place for everything else.
Five stages, from registration list to close-out.
Your team works in the first, fourth and fifth. Each person you support verifies with a licensed partner in their own country. The partner may require renewed checks when evidence expires or circumstances change.
- Your team
Set up the programme
Name the caseload or cohort, choose the shop categories, set a limit per household or person and an end date. Add your officers, approvers and auditors.
- Your team, then each person
Enrol people
Invite people from your registration list; it stays in your programme console and isn’t passed to the DELFINA engine. Each person, or each household’s registered representative, gets an invitation and verifies with [Issuing partner] where they live. You’re never asked to verify anyone abroad.
- Licensed partners
Cards issue
If the issuing partner accepts the reconciled result, it issues a card in each person’s own name, ready for shop terminals and online checkouts.
- Each period
Support runs
People pay at shops that fit the rules. The proposed design requests funding from your programme’s account at authorisation. The record tracks approval and later clearing; charge or hold timing depends on the licensed partners.
- Your team
Report and close
Report by period, category or person. Request an end date for new purchases through the issuer. Pending authorisations and offline-processing exceptions may resolve later; report cleared spending, refunds and disputes separately.
Your programme decides. Licensed institutions do the regulated work.
A proposed division of responsibilities. Names in [brackets] stand for licensed partner institutions; final roles are agreed with them before a pilot.
| Task | Your programme | [Programme’s provider] | [Issuing partner] | DELFINA | Amanah |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decide who is in the programme | |||||
| Set and change the rules | |||||
| Verify the programme and its funding source | |||||
| Verify each person | |||||
| Reconcile the two checks | |||||
| Issue cards and approve purchases | |||||
| Handle refunds and disputes | |||||
| Keep the record and reports |
Allow the shops the support is for. Everything else stays off.
Rules apply to a whole caseload or cohort. You can adjust one household’s or person’s limit with a recorded reason, and every change waits for a second approver.
Each person sees their own rules in their app before the card arrives, and is shown every change.
Categories describe the shop, not the items bought. A supermarket counts as a supermarket whatever is in the basket. Limits and issuer security checks also apply. Offline and stand-in processing need agreed partner rules; category settings alone do not guarantee every outcome.
- Limit per household
- ₱5,000 for the round
- Groceries and supermarketsMCC 5411 · 5499
- Allowed
- Pharmacies, clinics and hospitalsMCC 5912 · 8011 · 8062
- Allowed
- Hardware and building suppliesMCC 5251 · 5211
- Allowed
- Electricity and water billsMCC 4900
- Allowed
- Phone billsMCC 4814
- Allowed
- Cash withdrawals and quasi-cashMCC 6010 · 6011 · 6051
- Off
- Every other category
- Off
- Runs
- 14 Oct – 13 Nov 2026
The controls your finance team will ask about.
Planned console features for the pilot. Which ones take effect at the card depends on the issuing partner.
Two-person approval
One officer prepares a new period, a rule change or a limit change. A second person approves it. Nothing goes out on one signature.
Roles
Officers, approvers, finance and auditors each see what they need. Auditors and donor representatives get a read-only view of the record.
Freeze a card
For a lost card or a safeguarding concern. A freeze request goes to the issuing partner and the reason is logged. Its effect depends on the partner’s authorisation and offline-processing rules.
Cohort actions
Open a new period, raise a limit or pause a whole cohort in one action instead of card by card.
Per-person changes
Adjust one person’s limit or end date for a documented reason, such as a field trip or a medical need. The reason stays on the record.
Change history
Every rule, limit and role change shows who made it, who approved it and when.
One programme record, ready for your donor report.
An issuer-fed record of card activity: shop, category, amount and payment status. Completeness and update timing depend on the partner’s reporting feed. Selected purchases from 14–22 October, with status updates through 23 October. Totals below cover this sample, not the whole-programme console above.
| Date | Household | Shop and category | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Oct | H-0392 · Dela Paz | Bayan HardwareHardware · MCC 5251Authorised 14 Oct, 10:05 · Cleared 15 Oct | ₱3,600 | cleared |
| 14 Oct | H-0407 · Ramos | Sari Mart SupermarketGroceries · MCC 5411Authorised 14 Oct, 16:22 · Cleared 15 Oct | ₱1,280 | cleared |
| 15 Oct | H-0407 · Ramos | Cash machineCash withdrawal · MCC 6011Declined 15 Oct, 08:40 · cash withdrawals are off in this programme. Nothing was charged. | ₱2,000 | declined |
| 15 Oct | H-0418 · Cruz | Town PharmacyPharmacies · MCC 5912Authorised 15 Oct, 11:47 · Cleared 16 Oct | ₱640 | cleared |
| 16 Oct | H-0451 · Villanueva | Island Power (online bill)Utilities · MCC 4900Authorised 16 Oct, 19:30 · Cleared 17 Oct · paid from an evacuation centre | ₱1,150 | cleared |
| 17 Oct | H-0466 · Reyes | Market Square GroceryGroceries · MCC 5411Authorised 17 Oct, 09:02 · Reversed 09:05 (terminal timed out; paid again on the next line) | ₱980 | reversed |
| 17 Oct | H-0466 · Reyes | Market Square GroceryGroceries · MCC 5411Authorised 17 Oct, 09:06 · Cleared 18 Oct | ₱980 | cleared |
| 18 Oct | H-0392 · Dela Paz | Bayan HardwareHardware · MCC 5251Authorised 18 Oct · Cleared 19 Oct · Refunded 21 Oct (unused sheets returned) | ₱1,350 | refunded |
| 19 Oct | H-0472 · Lim | Coastline Telecom (phone bill)Phone bills · MCC 4814Authorised 19 Oct, 13:15 · Cleared 20 Oct | ₱399 | cleared |
| 21 Oct | H-0488 · Mendoza | Bayan HardwareHardware · MCC 5251Authorised 21 Oct, 15:48 · Clearing usually takes 1–3 days | ₱2,350 | |
| 22 Oct | H-0418 · Cruz | Town PharmacyPharmacies · MCC 5912Cleared 22 Oct · Disputed 23 Oct (charged twice). Held aside until the issuer resolves it. | ₱640 | disputed |
Counted as spent: cleared purchases. Authorised amounts can still change; reversed and declined attempts never become spending; refunds are credited back to the programme; disputed amounts are held aside until resolved. Declined attempts appear here for your team and auditors in this proposed illustrative view; availability depends on the issuing partner’s reporting feed.
Staff and auditor visibility of declined attempts is proposed, not a live proven feature; completeness and timing depend on the licensed partner.
What the record shows
- Which card was used, and whose name is on it
- The shop and the category it is registered under
- The amount, date and time
- Where the payment stands: authorised, cleared, refunded, reversed, disputed or declined
- The issuer-reported outcome against the configured rules
What it doesn’t prove
- Which items were bought. Categories describe shops, not baskets
- That a purchase was needed, or the price was fair
- That goods were delivered or used as intended
- Programme outcomes such as recovery, health or grades
- Conditions such as attendance or clinic visits, which need their own evidence
Use the record alongside post-distribution monitoring and your own case files, not in place of them.
Where it fits, and where your current methods stay.
It works best where the shops and billers people need already take cards. Each example lists the categories a programme might allow.
Short, capped support after a disaster
A set amount for a few weeks after a typhoon, flood or earthquake: food, repairs and the bills that keep running.
Groceries · hardware · pharmacies · utilities · phone bills
Only where shops and billers accept cards and are operating. Networks can be down in the first days.
Restricted or multipurpose support
Restricted assistance without a closed voucher network or trader enrolment. For multipurpose support, turn the category rules off to allow a wider range of card-accepting shops. Other issuer, amount and acceptance checks still apply.
Set per programme · cash withdrawals off by default
Market stalls and sellers that only take cash are out of reach.
Monthly support for students
Books, supplies, food and transport, with a regular reporting cycle.
Bookshops · supplies · eating places · pharmacies · transport
Usually a strong fit: campus shops and bookshops tend to take cards.
It won’t cover your whole caseload.
No delivery method does. The aim is a smaller, more manageable residual caseload on your existing methods.
- People who can’t be verifiedEach person needs an ID the issuing partner accepts. The issuing partner’s ID rules apply. Where documents are lost or were never held, your current method continues.
- Card acceptanceThe card works only where cards are accepted. Thin acceptance in rural markets may favour vouchers or cash.
- Shops, not itemsRules work at the shop’s category. They can stop a liquor store, but not a bottle bought in a supermarket.
- Approvals can changeAn authorised purchase can still be reversed, refunded or disputed. Report cleared purchases separately, with refunds and disputes tracked alongside them.
- Conditions need evidenceSupport tied to attendance, immunisation or eligibility needs a separate process. A shop category can’t establish it.
- Not a route around sanctionsWhere the receiving side can’t lawfully act, no card is issued.
Amanah runs on licensed partners and the DELFINA engine.
You work in Amanah. The regulated work stays with licensed institutions in each country.
Amanah
The programme console: rules, approvals, roles and the record. Blanja is the family version of the same model.
[Programme’s provider] and [Issuing partner]
One verifies your organisation and provides the funding side. The other verifies each person where they live, issues the card and approves purchases within your rules.
DELFINA
Compares the two institutions’ signed checks with what the card requires and shows what is covered and what is missing. The institutions decide.
Start with one cohort and one country pair.
We’re looking for a first programme to design a pilot with. Amanah and Blanja are both candidates for Delegated Finance’s first pilot; engagement and partner readiness will guide which starts first. This is the shape we’d propose, with the programme, licensed partners and commercial terms agreed before launch.
You’d bring
- A cohort and its eligibility criteria
- The categories and limits the support is for
- A funding account with a licensed provider
- A programme officer and an approver
We’d bring
- The console, set up for your cohort
- Coordination with the licensed partners
- Report formats agreed with your finance team
- Regular check-ins through the pilot
Discuss your programme
Tell us about your organisation and the programme you have in mind. A conversation can help us explore whether an Amanah pilot could fit.
Email about AmanahOpens your email app. You review and send the message there.
You can also write to hello@delegated.finance.
We use your message to respond to this enquiry. It does not subscribe you to Blanja updates or commit you to a pilot.
Keep the first message high level. Please leave out beneficiary details, identity documents and card information.