Publication: The Global Findex Database 2014: Measuring Financial Inclusion around the World
Date
2015-04
ISSN
Published
2015-04
Author(s)
Abstract
The Global Financial Inclusion (Global
Findex) database, launched by the World Bank in 2011,
provides comparable indicators showing how people around the
world save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. The 2014
edition of the database reveals that 62 percent of adults
worldwide have an account at a bank or another type of
financial institution or with a mobile money provider.
Between 2011 and 2014, 700 million adults became account
holders while the number of those without an account—the
unbanked—dropped by 20 percent to 2 billion. What drove this
increase in account ownership? A growth in account
penetration of 13 percentage points in developing economies
and innovations in technology—particularly mobile money,
which is helping to rapidly expand access to financial
services in Sub-Saharan Africa. Along with these gains, the
data also show that big opportunities remain to increase
financial inclusion, especially among women and poor people.
Governments and the private sector can play a pivotal role
by shifting the payment of wages and government transfers
from cash into accounts. There are also large opportunities
to spur greater use of accounts, allowing those who already
have one to benefit more fully from financial inclusion. In
developing economies 1.3 billion adults with an account pay
utility bills in cash, and more than half a billion pay
school fees in cash. Digitizing payments like these would
enable account holders to make the payments in a way that is
easier, more affordable, and more secure.
Citation
“Demirguc-Kunt, Asli; Klapper, Leora; Singer, Dorothe; Van Oudheusden, Peter. 2015. The Global Findex Database 2014: Measuring Financial Inclusion around the World. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7255. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21865 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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