INCLUSIVE OR EXCLUSIVE GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT? SCRUTINIZING FINANCIAL INCLUSION

 

Financial inclusion means that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs – transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance – delivered in a responsible and sustainable way. IGIDR entrance coaching at Deep School of Economics is an institute providing Economics education focusing on competitive exams in India. Courses are currently provided for  UGC NET- Economics and Masters entrance exams such as DSE, ISI, IGIDR, TISS, TERI.

 

Financial inclusion has been high on the agenda for policy-makers over the past decade, including the G20, international financial institutions, national governments and philanthropic foundations. According to Bateman and Chang, it’s the international development community’s most generously funded poverty reduction policy. But what lies behind the buzzword? How can the two quotes above portray such starkly opposing views?

• Financial inclusion has been identified as an enabler for 7 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  
• The G20 committed to advance financial inclusion worldwide and reaffirmed its commitment to implement the G20 High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion. 
• The World Bank Group considers financial inclusion a key enabler to reduce extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity.

 Why is Financial Inclusion Controversial?

Financial inclusion — or access to credit and financial services for non-banked communities — appears benign and straightforward at first sight, but there is much that needs to be unpacked. While the World Bank’s information page on financial inclusion presents the promotion of financial services for the poor as a technical and efficient solution to poverty, sceptics have pointed to a growing body of evidence that financial inclusion initiatives have, at best, failed to live up to their promises and diverted attention from more effective and comprehensive poverty reduction strategies, and at worst, resulted in dramatic explosions in predatory lending to low-income households, and in significant reductions in the welfare of borrowers and their communities.

In an overview piece, Phil Mader  has found that the case for financial inclusion as a pro-poor private-sector led development intervention lacks sufficient evidence and justification – and that the concept should be recognized as a contested and contestable enterprise. In that spirit, this blog  aims to unpack what policies lie behind the concept, what effects such policies have had on the ground, and how the concept relates to other socio-economic issues such as inequality, poverty, financial citizenship, financial education, and other income flows such as remittances. It also includes wider perspectives on the context in which financial inclusion initiatives take place, such as an examination of the international financial architecture.

Being able to have access to a transaction account is a first step toward broader financial inclusion since a transaction account allows people to store money, and send and receive payments. A transaction account serves as a gateway to other financial services, which is why ensuring that people worldwide can have access to a transaction account continues to be an area of  focus for the World Bank Group (WBG). Most notably, it was the focus of the World Bank Group’s Universal Financial Access 2020 initiative, which concluded at the end of 2020. Though many gains were made through this initiative, it is an indicator of the scale of the challenge that still more work remains to be done.

Financial access facilitates day-to-day living, and helps families and businesses plan for everything from long-term goals to unexpected emergencies. As accountholders, people are more likely to use other financial services, such as credit and insurance, to start and expand businesses, invest in education or health, manage risk, and weather financial shocks, which can improve the overall quality of their lives.

The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has also reinforced the need for increased digital financial inclusion. Digital financial inclusion involves the deployment of the cost-saving digital means to reach currently financially excluded and underserved populations with a range of formal financial services suited to their needs that are responsibly delivered at a cost affordable to customers and sustainable for providers.

Great strides have been made toward financial inclusion and 1.2 billion adults worldwide have gotten access to an account between 2011 and 2022. As of 2022, 69% of the world’s adults had an account. Digital financial services — including those involving the use of mobile phones — have now been launched in more than 80 countries, with some reaching significant scale. As a result, millions of formerly excluded and underserved poor customers are moving from exclusively cash-based transactions to formal financial services using a mobile phone or other digital technology to access these services.

Moving from access to usage of accounts is the next step for countries where 80% or more of the population have accounts (China, Kenya, India, Thailand). These countries relied on reforms, private sector innovation, and a push to open low-cost accounts, including mobile and digitally-enabled payments.

However, close to one-third of adults – 1.7 billion – were still unbanked in 2017, according to the latest Findex data (2021 data forthcoming). About half of unbanked people included women poor households in rural areas or out of the workforce.

Between 2011 and 2022 gender gap in account ownership remained stuck at 9 percentage points in developing countries, hindering women from being able to effectively control their financial lives. Countries with high mobile money account ownership had less gender inequality.

Since 2010, more than 55 countries have made commitments to financial inclusion, and more than 60 have either launched or are developing a national strategy. Countries that have achieved the most progress toward financial inclusion have: 

• Policies delivered at scale, such as universal digital ID - India and Aadhaar / JDY accounts - more than 1.2 billion residents covered
• Leveraged government payments. (For example, 35% of adults in low income countries receiving a government payment opened their first financial account for this purpose.)
• Allowed mobile financial services to thrive. (For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, mobile money account ownership rose from 12% to 21%.) 
• Welcomed new business models, such as leveraging e-commerce data for financial inclusion 
• Taking a strategic approach by developing a national financial inclusion strategy (NFIS) which bring together diverse stakeholders including financial regulators, telecommunications, competition and education ministries
• Paying attention to consumer protection and financial capability to promote responsible, sustainable financial services

When countries take a strategic approach and develop national financial inclusion strategies which bring together financial regulators, telecommunications, competition and education ministries, our research indicates that when countries institute a national financial inclusion strategy, they increase the pace and impact of reforms.