An index and study by The Economist Intelligence Unit Global Microscope 2014 The enabling environment for financial inclusion Supported by Global Microscope 2014 The enabling environment for financial inclusion About this report The Global Microscope 2014: The enabling environment for financial inclusion, formerly known as the Global microscope on the microfinance business environment, assesses the regulatory environment for financial inclusion across 12 indicators and 55 countries. The Microscope was originally developed for countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region in 2007 and was expanded into a global study in 2009. This year’s Microscope has a new indicator framework that considers products and institutions beyond microfinance to reflect financial inclusion more broadly. Due to theMicroscope’s new focus and significant methodology changes, users should be cautious when making comparisons across years. Most of the research for this report, which included interviews and desk analysis, was conducted between June and August 2014. This work was supported by funding from, and in collaboration with, the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group; CAF—Development Bank of Latin America; the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion; and Citi Microfinance. The complete index, as well as detailed country analysis, can be viewed on these websites: www.eiu.com/microscope2014; www.fomin.org; www.caf.com/en/msme; www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/microscope; www.citimicrofinance.com. Please use the following when citing this report: EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit). 2014. Global Microscope 2014: The enabling environment for financial inclusion. Sponsored by MIF/IDB, CAF, ACCION and Citi. EIU, New York, NY. 1 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2014 Global Microscope 2014 The enabling environment for financial inclusion For further information, please contact: Economist Intelligence Unit CAF Leo Abruzzese Dirección de Promoción de PYME y Microempresas Project Director: [email protected] Manuel Malaret Romina Bandura Director: [email protected] Project Manager: [email protected] +51 1 710 8581 Jimena Serrano Francisco Olivares Analyst: [email protected] Principal Officer: [email protected] +58 212 209 6579 Samantha Grenville Consulting Analyst: [email protected] Pablo F. Rolando Communications Officer: [email protected] Brian Mulligan +58 212 209 2451 Marketing Director: [email protected] +44 (0)20 7576 8134 Rachael Glynne Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion Marketing Executive: [email protected] Elisabeth Rhyne +44(2)7 576 8224 Managing Director: [email protected] Sonja Kelly Multilateral Investment Fund Fellow: [email protected] Inter-American Development Bank Bruce MacDonald Sergio Navajas Senior Vice President, Communications: Senior Specialist: [email protected] [email protected] +1 202 623 3268 Eric Zuehlke Verónica Trujillo Communications Director: [email protected] Consultant: [email protected] +1 202 393 5113 +1 202 312 4084 Alejandra Viveros Citi Microfinance Principal Communications Specialist: [email protected] Philip Martin Brown +1 202 312 4074 Managing Director, Risk: [email protected] Jorge Rubio Nava Director, Business Development: [email protected] Microfinance Team [email protected] The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of The Economist Intelligence Unit and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the MIF, CAF, Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion or Citi Microfinance. 2 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2014 Global Microscope 2014 The enabling environment for financial inclusion About The Economist Intelligence Unit About CAF The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) is the CAF—Development Bank of Latin America—has the research arm of The Economist Group, publisher of mission of stimulating sustainable development The Economist. As the world’s leading provider of and regional integration by financing projects in country intelligence, it helps governments, the public and private sectors, and providing institutions and businesses by providing timely, technical co-operation and other specialised reliable and impartial analysis of economic and services. Founded in 1970 and currently with 18 development strategies. Through its public policy member countries from Latin America, the practice, the EIU provides evidence-based research Caribbean, and Europe, along with 14 private for policymakers and stakeholders seeking banks, CAF is one of the main sources of measureable outcomes, in fields ranging from multilateral financing and an important generator gender and finance to energy and technology. It of knowledge for the region. For more information, conducts research through interviews, regulatory visit www.caf.com. analysis, quantitative modelling and forecasting, and displays the results via interactive data About the Center for Financial Inclusion at visualisation tools. Through a global network of Accion more than 350 analysts and contributors, the EIU The Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion (CFI) continuously assesses and forecasts political, helps bring about the conditions to achieve full economic and business conditions in more than financial inclusion around the world. Constructing 200 countries. For more information, visit a financial-inclusion sector that offers everyone www.eiu.com. access to quality services will require the combined efforts of many actors. CFI contributes to full About the Multilateral Investment Fund inclusion by collaborating with sector participants The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member to tackle challenges beyond the scope of any one of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) actor, using a toolkit that moves from thought Group, supports economic growth and poverty leadership to action. For more information, visit reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org. through encouraging increased private investment and advancing private-sector development. It About Citi Microfinance works with the private sector to develop, finance Citi Microfinance works with Citi businesses across and execute innovative business models that the world to develop solutions that expand access benefit entrepreneurs and poor and low-income to financial services. It serves microfinance households; partners with a wide variety of institutions, traditional banks, funds, institutions from the private, public and non-profit governments, global and local corporations, social sectors; evaluates results; and shares lessons enterprises and non-governmental organisations learned. The MIF is a laboratory for testing (NGOs) with a diverse and innovative set of pioneering, market-based approaches to products and services, including different sources development, and an agent of change that seeks to of funding, access to capital markets and new broaden the reach and deepen the impact of its payment technologies, which aim to advance most successful interventions. For more inclusive finance. Learn more at information, visit www.fomin.org. www.citimicrofinance.com. 3 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2014 Global Microscope 2014 The enabling environment for financial inclusion Acknowledgements The following researchers, country analysts and specialists contributed to this report. We thank them for their contributions: Members of the January 2014 expert panel: We thank the participation and valuable insight from the experts that participated in the January 2014 Advisory panel. Country analysis: Rodrigo Aguilera, Diane Alarcon, Angela Ambroz, Madeline Baron, Federico Barriga, Dinah Bengur, Naubet Bisenov, Marco De Natale, Fion De Vletter, Amila de Saram, Andreas Eberhard, Fatima Frank, Tom Felix Joehnk, Karen Kim, Haris Komic, Isya Kresnadi, Veronica Lara, M-CRIL (Sanjay Sinha and Sana Zehra), MANAUS Consulting (Tamar Koosed and Elizabeth Torres), Dinka Majanovic, Sebastien Marlier, Scott Martin, Susana Martinez, Jason Mitchell, Trevor Mugwanga, Thorn Pitidol, Tom Rafferty, Deen Sharp, Andrew Viteritti, Dana Vorisek, Molly Watts and Stewart Windeler. Model and report production: Madeline Baron, Roberto Donadi, Emiliana Donadi, Christopher Dychala, Lolli Duvivier, Mike Kenny, Edelle Lorenzana, Will Shallcross, Tom Scruton and Nick Wolf. 4 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2014 Global Microscope 2014 The enabling environment for financial inclusion Contents Foreword 6 Eastern Europe and Central Asia 35 Paraguay 55 Microscope indicators 8 Armenia 35 Peru 56 Overall rankings 10 Azerbaijan 35 Trinidad and Tobago 57 Key findings 12 Bosnia and Herzegovina 36 Uruguay 58 Regional scores 16 Georgia 37 Venezuela 59 Regional findings 17 Kyrgyz Republic 38 Middle East and North Africa 60 Tajikistan 39 Egypt 60 Microscope country profiles 22 Turkey 40 Lebanon 60 East and South Asia 24 Latin America and the Caribbean 41 Morocco 61 Bangladesh 24 Argentina 41 Yemen 62 Cambodia 24 Bolivia 41 Sub-Saharan Africa 63 China 25 Brazil 42 Cameroon 63 India 26 Chile 43 Democratic Republic of Congo 63 Indonesia 27 Colombia 44 Ghana 64 Mongolia 28 Costa Rica 45 Kenya 65 Nepal 29 Dominican Republic 46 Madagascar 66 Pakistan 30 Ecuador 47 Mozambique 67 Philippines 31 El Salvador 48 Nigeria 67 Sri Lanka 32 Guatemala 49 Rwanda 68 Thailand 32 Haiti 50 Senegal 69 Vietnam 33 Honduras 50 Tanzania 70 Jamaica 51 Uganda 71 Mexico 52 Nicaragua 53 Appendix 73 Methodology and sources Panama 54 5 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited