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Financial Inclusion

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Financial Inclusion

Global Financial Development Report 2014

World Bank,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Half of the world’s adults have no bank accounts. Learn why that’s a problem for everyone.

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Eye Opening
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

Giving more people access to financial services and products means reducing poverty, raising prosperity and advancing global socioeconomic development. This World Bank report wrestles with the far-ranging problem of how to serve individuals and firms that are now excluded from the world of finance. The World Bank’s researchers and writers do not set out to offer concrete solutions, but to present new information and data, and to encourage the continuation of a dialog that matters, especially to the half of the world’s population that has no bank account. The investigators reviewed papers from across the globe to report on currently promising concepts, strategies, trial programs and experiments to reduce “financial exclusion.” They cover savings, insurance, microcredit, financial education, gender bias, legal and regulatory frameworks, and the twin bête noirs of moral hazard and adverse selection. Dozens of figures, maps, tables and three country-by-country appendices of data augment the clearly written text. getAbstract finds this exhaustive study pivotal and extremely significant. Its ambitions touch vast populations of underserved people and the interests of tens of thousands of public officials, stakeholders, international financiers, venture capitalists and the socially conscious, all hoping to raise the quality of life for multitudes.

Summary

“Financial Inclusion”

Financial inclusion is “the proportion of individuals and firms that use financial services.” Recent research and observations point to financial inclusion as an important barometer and tool in helping to reduce poverty, increase prosperity, as well as to improve global socioeconomic development.

Only half of the world’s adults maintain a bank account. Some of those who are excluded may have valid reasons for not using financial services, like a shortage of money, cultural or religious beliefs, or “indirect access” through a family member. But the finance industry must consider the countless people who can’t use its services for “involuntary” reasons: “discrimination, lack of information, weak contract enforcement” or “price barriers due to market imperfections.”

“Financial exclusion” links closely with income inequality. Rich and poor people in Sweden own bank accounts in equivalent numbers, while in Haiti, the top earners are more than 14 times more likely to have a bank account than the lowest earners. On the whole, people who avail themselves of financial services can borrow and save for productive ventures like businesses, education...

About the Author

The World Bank is an international financial institution that aims to reduce poverty by providing credit, advice and resources for capital projects to developing countries.

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    S. A. 2 years ago
    More people seriously needs to understand how this is effecting people in the Uk
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    M. M. 1 decade ago
    Yes, very much!