2015 BROOKINGS FINANCIAL and DIGITAL INCLUSION PROJECT REPORT Measuring Progress on Financial Access and Usage
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WASHINGTON, DC | AUGUST 26, 2015 THE 2015 BROOKINGS FINANCIAL AND DIGITAL INCLUSION PROJECT REPORT Measuring Progress on Financial Access and Usage BY JOHN D. VILLASENOR, DARRELL M. WEST, AND ROBIN J. LEWIS About the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings The Center for Technology Innovation (CTI) at Brookings focuses on delivering research that impacts public debate and policymaking in the arena of U.S. and global technology innovation. CTI’s goals include: Identifying and analyzing key developments to increase innovation; developing and publicizing best practices to relevant stakeholders; briefing policymakers about actions needed to improve innovation; and enhancing the public and media’s understanding of technology innovation. About the Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and policy solutions. Its mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations for policymakers and the public. The conclusions and recommendations of any Brookings publication are solely those of its author(s), and do not reflect the views of the Institution, its management, or its other scholars. WASHINGTON, DC | AUGUST 26, 2015 THE 2015 BROOKINGS FINANCIAL AND DIGITAL INCLUSION PROJECT REPORT Measuring Progress on Financial Access and Usage BY JOHN D. VILLASENOR, DARRELL M. WEST, AND ROBIN J. LEWIS Comments and feedback regarding the Financial and Digital Inclusion Project can be submitted to [email protected]. THE 2015 BROOKINGS FINANCIAL AND DIGITAL INCLUSION PROJECT REPORT 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................ 2 THE IMPORTANCE OF FINANCIAL INCLUSION ............................... 7 MEASURING FINANCIAL INCLUSION .......................................... 10 DIMENSIONS OF EVALUATION ................................................... 12 Overall ranking on financial inclusion ................................... 12 Country commitment ranking ............................................ 15 Mobile capacity ranking ................................................... 17 Regulatory environment ranking ........................................ 18 Adoption ranking ........................................................... 21 DIVERSE ROADMAPS TOWARD INCLUSION .................................. 23 COUNTRY PROFILES Afghanistan ................................................................. 30 Bangladesh ................................................................. 35 Brazil ........................................................................ 40 Chile ......................................................................... 45 Colombia .................................................................... 49 Ethiopia ..................................................................... 54 India .......................................................................... 57 Indonesia .................................................................... 64 Kenya ........................................................................ 68 Malawi ....................................................................... 74 Mexico ....................................................................... 78 Nigeria ....................................................................... 84 Pakistan ..................................................................... 89 Peru .......................................................................... 94 Philippines .................................................................. 99 Rwanda ...................................................................... 104 South Africa ................................................................ 108 Tanzania ..................................................................... 113 Turkey ....................................................................... 117 Uganda ...................................................................... 121 Zambia ...................................................................... 126 METHODOLOGY AND SOURCE NOTES Research process .......................................................... 130 Scoring descriptions ....................................................... 130 ENDNOTES ........................................................................... 138 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.............................................................. 184 ABOUT THE AUTHORS ............................................................ 186 2 MEASURING PROGRESS ON FINANCIAL ACCESS AND USAGE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY KEY TAKEAWAYS • Access to and use of formal financial services provide opportunities for facilitating individual prosperity and economic development • Women and other marginalized groups can benefit from greater access to mobile money and other digital financial services • Joining multi-national financial inclusion networks, coordinating among diverse stakeholders, and setting quantifiable targets based on nationally representative data can drive progress toward greater financial inclusion • Investing in digital infrastructure that is accessible and affordable contributes to the availability and adoption of digital financial services among underserved populations • Facilitating competition by allowing non-banks to provide financial services, encouraging providers to improve interoperability, and limiting agent exclusivity through regulation helps foster the emergence and adoption of innovative and affordable services • Advancing financial literacy and ensuring reliability and accessibility of financial services will help overcome barriers to adoption any people around the world live outside the formal financial system. According to the 2014 World Bank Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) database, about 62 percent of adults age 15 and older around the world have access to an account at a formal financial institution M 1 2 3 or mobile money provider. That leaves about 2 billion adults globally who are not account holders. However, only 4 percent of adults without accounts surveyed for the Global Findex database indicated that the sole reason they did not have an account was that they did not need one.4 In recent years, many developing countries have made commitments to expand financial services for the poor. For example, as of May 2015 government leaders representing 54 institutions across 61 countries5 had signed the Maya Declaration on Financial Inclusion pledging to recognize the importance THE 2015 BROOKINGS FINANCIAL AND DIGITAL INCLUSION PROJECT REPORT 3 of financial inclusion, affirm the value of peer-to-peer More generally, our analysis resulted in several knowledge sharing, expand the Alliance for Financial overarching conclusions: Inclusion network, develop a financial inclusion policy, implement sound regulatory frameworks, recognize the 1. Country commitments matter. importance of consumer protection, and use data to Most of the countries that performed well in our study track progress toward financial inclusion.6 7 took their pledges seriously and made significant prog- The 2015 Brookings Financial and Digital Inclu- ress on implementing them. Of the FDIP countries sion Project (FDIP) Report and Scorecard seek to help that received the highest score for country commitment answer a set of fundamental and interrelated questions, (India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, including 1) Do country commitments make a differ- and Zambia), all completed at least one of their latest ence in progress toward financial inclusion?; 2) To what Maya Declaration targets (or, in the case of India, extent do mobile and other digital technologies advance completed targets within the Maya Declaration’s key financial inclusion?; and 3) What legal, policy, and reg- policy areas).9 While we recognize that correlation does ulatory approaches promote financial inclusion? not necessarily equal causation, the correlation alone To answer these questions, we analyzed finan- is noteworthy. cial inclusion in 21 geographically, economically, and We found four key takeaways regarding the nature politically diverse countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, of country commitments. Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, • Involvement in multinational financial inclusion-ori- Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, the ented networks can drive development of country Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Turkey, commitments and facilitate knowledge-sharing Uganda, and Zambia. Each of these nations has com- among groups (and in this sense, the link is causal mitted to improving financial access and usage, and because membership in those networks by defi- collectively they represent a diverse range of geogra- nition promotes engagement aimed at advancing phies, cultures, and political and economic systems. inclusion). For the purposes of our study, we considered financial inclusion as “both access to and usage of appropriate, • Creating a national financial inclusion strategy with affordable, and accessible financial services.”8 measurable targets is often an important compo- The top-scoring countries in our analysis included nent of financial inclusion.10 Kenya (achieving 89 percent of the total possible points), South Africa (80 percent), Brazil (78 percent), Rwanda • Coordinating across government agencies and and Uganda (tied with 75 percent each), and Chile, between public and private sectors is vital for