Tag Archives | financial inclusion
Economics, Finance sector development, Information and Communications Technology
Finance sector development, Information and Communications Technology
Finance sector development, Poverty
Economics, Education, Finance sector development
Finance sector development
Finance sector development
Fintech development transforming the financial landscape in the People’s Republic of China
Financial technology (fintech) is rapidly changing the financial landscape in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), with important implications for financial inclusion and macroeconomic stability (Huang 2020). Fintech in the PRC started at the end of 2004 when the mobile payment service Alipay first came online. However, fintech did not grow dramatically until 2013, when the online money market fund Yu’ebao started to receive investments from Alipay users.
Closing the gender gap in peer-to-peer lending
Financial inclusion for women has been embraced by policy makers as an important development priority. However, despite women having lower risk preferences and higher creditworthiness, the gender gap in access to finance is still prevalent in the traditional credit market. This is due to various factors, such as differences in employment opportunities, legal obstacles, cultural norms, and limited access to the guarantee mechanism, among others.
Remittances as a trigger for postal financial inclusion
More than 1 billion adult Asians rely on the region’s 350,000 post offices. Over 2 million employees in more than 350,000 post offices and agents across Asia serve 1 billion of the 3.2 billion adults in the region (more than 57% of the world’s adult population) by providing basic financial services, including the receipt of remittances. The majority of the users live in rural communities or peri-urban areas, often at a considerable distance from bank branches, and consider post offices as an immediate access point to financial services.
Financial literacy and savings: Evidence from Cambodia and Viet Nam
Financial literacy has gained an important position in the policy agenda of many countries, and the importance of collecting informative, reliable data on the levels of financial literacy across adult populations has been widely recognized (OECD/INFE 2015a). At their summit in Los Cabos in 2012, G20 leaders endorsed the High-Level Principles on National Strategies for Financial Education developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development International Network on Financial Education (OECD/INFE), thereby acknowledging the importance of coordinated policy approaches to financial education (G20 2012).
Fintech is the game-changer for financial inclusion in Asia
Due to innovations in financial technology and changes in the enabling environment, the number of financially excluded adults across Asia and the Pacific has dropped to about 1 billion. Increased access to affordable financial services can be a lever for Asians to smoothen consumption, manage risk and improve their lives through better savings options, access to credit, and cheaper payments or remittances.
3 ways to serve Asia and the Pacific’s ‘unbanked’
Every time I stop and withdraw cash from an ATM or use my credit card to buy something online, I wonder how many people in Asia have access to such services. In fact, these simple transactions are beyond the reach of 45% of adults in East Asia and the Pacific alone. They are excluded from the formal financial system and will remain so until they open a bank account.
Recent Comments