Do Remittances Enhance Financial Inclusion in LMICs and in Fragile States?
Title | Do Remittances Enhance Financial Inclusion in LMICs and in Fragile States? PDF eBook |
Author | Mr.Sami Ben Naceur |
Publisher | International Monetary Fund |
Total Pages | 42 |
Release | 2020-05-22 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 1513545396 |
This paper explores the relationship between remittances and financial inclusion for a sample of 187 countries over the period 2004-2015, using cross-country as well as dynamic panel GMM regressions. At low levels of remittances-to-GDP, these flows act as a substitute to formal financial channels, thereby reducing financial inclusion. In contrast, when remittance-to-GDP ratio is high, above 13% on average, they tend to complement formal access and usage channels, thus enhancing financial inclusion. This “U shaped” relationship highlights the role of remittance flows in financing household consumption at low levels, while raising formal household bank savings and allowing for more intermediation, at high levels of remittance-to-GDP.
Financial Inclusion: What Have We Learned So Far? What Do We Have to Learn?
Title | Financial Inclusion: What Have We Learned So Far? What Do We Have to Learn? PDF eBook |
Author | Adolfo Barajas |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 51 |
Release | 2020-08-07 |
Genre | |
ISBN | 9781513553009 |
The past two decades have seen a rapid increase in interest in financial inclusion, both from policymakers and researchers. This paper surveys the main findings from the literature, documenting the trends over time and gaps that have arisen across regions, income levels, and gender, among others. It points out that structural, as well as policy-related, factors, such as encouraging banking competition or channeling government payments through bank accounts, play an important role, and describes the potential macro and microeconomic benefits that can be derived from greater financial inclusion. It argues that policy should aim to identify and reduce frictions holding back financial inclusion, rather than targeting specific levels of inclusion. Finally, it suggests areas for future research.
Fintech Potential for Remittance Transfers: A Central America Perspective
Title | Fintech Potential for Remittance Transfers: A Central America Perspective PDF eBook |
Author | Julia Bersch |
Publisher | International Monetary Fund |
Total Pages | 52 |
Release | 2021-06-25 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 1513585428 |
This paper analyzes the potential for fintech to facilitate cheaper and more efficient remittances, and to enhance financial inclusion in Central America. Digital remittances remain nascent in the region, primarily reflecting behavioral inertia, small cost advantages of digital over traditional channels, and inadequate financial literacy. Through expanded alliances between traditional and fintech operators, digital remittances can further reduce transaction costs and reach those remote, low-income households in a timely and secure manner. A meaningful expansion of fintech remittances necessitates an enabling regulatory environment for digital financial services, and KYC and AML/CFT requirements proportionate to the value of transfers.
Digital finance and inclusion in the time of COVID-19
Title | Digital finance and inclusion in the time of COVID-19 PDF eBook |
Author | Benni, N. |
Publisher | Food & Agriculture Org. |
Total Pages | 94 |
Release | 2021-01-04 |
Genre | Technology & Engineering |
ISBN | 9251336237 |
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted digital financial inclusion trends across the world in many and complex ways. In developing and emerging contexts, this crisis also holds the potential to propel an unprecedented acceleration in the process of financial digitization and turn out to be a game-changer for digital financial inclusion. The aim of this study is to illustrate the opportunities and risks associated with the surge in uptake and use of digital financial service, providing ideas on how to leverage the paradigm changes affecting the overall approach and perspective towards digital financial services – on the part of various stakeholders – to advance financial inclusion and development. It also seeks to showcase how digital financial services have been used – in both traditional and innovative ways – to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on economies and societies, by both public and private actors.
How to Achieve Inclusive Growth
Title | How to Achieve Inclusive Growth PDF eBook |
Author | Valerie Cerra |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | 901 |
Release | 2022-01-22 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 0192846930 |
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Rising inequality and widespread poverty, social unrest and polarization, gender and ethnic disparities, declining social mobility, economic fragility, unbalanced growth due to technology and globalization, and existential danger from climate change are urgent global concerns of our day. These issues are intertwined. They therefore require a holistic framework to examine their interplay and bring the various strands together. Leading academic economists have partnered with experts from several international institutions to explain the sources and scale of these challenges. They gather a wide array of empirical evidence and country experiences to lay out practical policy solutions and to devise a comprehensive and unified plan of action for combatting these economic and social disparities. This authoritative book is accessible to policy makers, students, and the general public interested in how to craft a brighter future by building a sustainable, green, and inclusive society in the years ahead.
The Financial Inclusion Landscape in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Dozen Key Findings
Title | The Financial Inclusion Landscape in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Dozen Key Findings PDF eBook |
Author | Mrs.Sarwat Jahan |
Publisher | International Monetary Fund |
Total Pages | 31 |
Release | 2019-04-19 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 149830544X |
Financial inclusion is a multidimensional concept and countries have chosen diverse methods of enhancing financial inclusion with varying degrees of results. The heterogeneity of financial inclusion is particularly striking in the Asia-Pacific region as member countries range from those that are at the cutting edge of financial technology to others that are aiming to provide access to basic financial services. The wide disparity is not only inter-country but also intra-country. The focus of this paper is to take stock of the current state of financial inclusion in the Asia-Pacific region by highlighting twelve stylized facts about the state of financial inclusion in these countries. The paper finds that the state of financial inclusion depends on several factors, but a holistic approach calibrated to specific country conditions may lead to greater financial inclusion.
The Global Findex Database 2017
Title | The Global Findex Database 2017 PDF eBook |
Author | Asli Demirguc-Kunt |
Publisher | World Bank Publications |
Total Pages | 148 |
Release | 2018-04-19 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 1464812683 |
In 2011 the World Bank—with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—launched the Global Findex database, the world's most comprehensive data set on how adults save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. Drawing on survey data collected in collaboration with Gallup, Inc., the Global Findex database covers more than 140 economies around the world. The initial survey round was followed by a second one in 2014 and by a third in 2017. Compiled using nationally representative surveys of more than 150,000 adults age 15 and above in over 140 economies, The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution includes updated indicators on access to and use of formal and informal financial services. It has additional data on the use of financial technology (or fintech), including the use of mobile phones and the Internet to conduct financial transactions. The data reveal opportunities to expand access to financial services among people who do not have an account—the unbanked—as well as to promote greater use of digital financial services among those who do have an account. The Global Findex database has become a mainstay of global efforts to promote financial inclusion. In addition to being widely cited by scholars and development practitioners, Global Findex data are used to track progress toward the World Bank goal of Universal Financial Access by 2020 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The database, the full text of the report, and the underlying country-level data for all figures—along with the questionnaire, the survey methodology, and other relevant materials—are available at www.worldbank.org/globalfindex.