You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘IMF Financial Access Survey’ tag.
> Posted by Nikhil Gehani, Marketing and Communications Manager, MIX
The importance of data in strategic decision-making cannot be overstated – especially in the era of ‘big data’. Yet, as the inclusive finance community continues its efforts to shift more people from unbanked to banked, improving both data quality and data regularity remains a pressing issue. While there certainly has been progress in data and measurement overall, a more nuanced picture is needed to identify specific opportunities for industry players to increase the reach and quality of financial services for underserved populations.
Current data platforms, including the World Bank’s Global Findex and the IMF’s Financial Access Survey, are beginning to fill the gaps in national measures of financial inclusion. Now, the next iteration of financial inclusion data is needed to enable local industry actors – policymakers, regulators, and operators – to assess the gaps and opportunities at the state, district, and township-level. With that in mind, MIX’s FINclusion Lab recently sought out high-quality, subnational data to answer key questions related to supply and demand for financial services in underserved areas. Questions like: How does geographic proximity impact usage of financial services? And: How effective are non-traditional providers in increasing access to financial services in rural areas?
> Posted by Caitlin Sanford, Lanna Lome-Ieremia, and Sameer Chand, Bankable Frontier Associates, Central Bank of Samoa, and Reserve Bank of Fiji
Another version of this post is published on the Alliance for Financial Inclusion website.
Sigatoka Market, Sigatoka, Fiji
Until now there have been few sources of publicly available data about financial access and usage in the Pacific Islands. Although individual central banks are measuring and tracking progress towards financial inclusion, the small island countries in the Pacific region have often been left out of international financial inclusion datasets, such as the Global Findex. The IMF Financial Access Survey captures some key financial inclusion indicators but this does not include all the countries from the Pacific.
The Pacific Islands Working Group on financial inclusion (PIWG) of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion came together this year to define and collect financial inclusion data specifically tailored to the region. Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu participated in this data project. While the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) and the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) have elaborated key sets of financial inclusion indicators to be used for global comparison, in some instances, individual countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Tanzania, and others have crafted broader sets of country-level indicators. This is the first time a broader set of common indicators have been developed at a regional level.
Facebook
Twitter
Recent Comments