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Global Microscope 2014
Report

Global Microscope 2014

The Enabling Environment for Financial Inclusion

EIU, 2014

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

What started with the promulgation of microcredit among the world’s poorest people has broadened into mobile banking, microinsurance and e-money targeted to unbanked and underserved populations. This report from The Economist Intelligence Unit shows that, although no consensus exists on what a national financial-inclusion strategy should incorporate, some countries have made significant progress in individual areas. But the paper also highlights the untold downside of financial inclusion: Success may result in more debts than assets for the poor. getAbstract recommends this wide-ranging report on financial services in the developing world.

Summary

Financial inclusion is a fast-changing, innovative field, and its purview has broadened from microfinance to microinsurance, electronic cash and mobile banking. A survey across 55 developing countries of financial-inclusion practices, as well as of the regulatory oversight of market conduct and innovation, indicates progress in reaching underserved populations, but much remains unaddressed. More than half the countries studied score 50 or below on the survey’s 100-point scale. While just two-thirds have enacted financial-inclusion policies, only about half of these have implemented...

About the Author

The Economist Intelligence Unit is an independent research and analysis organization.


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