Building Inclusive Financial Systems: A Framework for Financial Access

Broad-based and inclusive financial systems can significantly aid financial development, reduce poverty, and expand economic opportunity in developing countries. Poor households and individuals often have difficulty obtaining financial services for a multitude of reasons, including transaction costs, perceived risk, inadequate legal and financial infrastructure, and information barriers. Yet many financial institutions have begun making profitable inroads into these underserved markets through the continuing expansion of financial access and microfinance.

The authors in this volume take stock of what has been accomplished so far and address the challenges that remain in making financial systems more inclusive. They examine methods for measuring financial access, the link between access and poverty reduction, the question of private profitability and social returns, the role of commercial banks in improving financial access, the need for innovative financial and technological infrastructure, and the ways government policies can expand access. Building Inclusive Financial Systems offers an indispensable guide for governments and the private sector to increase access effectively and responsibly.

Contributors: Michael S. Barr (University of Michigan Law School), Xavier Gine (World Bank), Mukta Joshi (consultant, World Bank), Anjali Kumar (World Bank), Robert E. Litan (Kauffman Foundation and Brookings Institution), Ajai Nair (consultant, World Bank), Stephen Peachey (World Savings Banks Institute), David Porteous (Bankable Frontier Associates), Loraine Ronchi (World Bank), Konstantinos Tzioumis (World Bank), J. D. von Pischke (Frontier Finance International)

World Bank/IMF/Brookings Emerging Markets Series