G20 High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion

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The G20 stands at an unprecedented time when our leadership has the potential to drive the growth of inclusive economies by promoting digital financial services. Two billion adults globally do not have access to formal financial services and are excluded from opportunities to improve their lives. While tremendous gains in financial inclusion have already been achieved, digital financial services, together with effective supervision (which may be digitally enabled), are essential to close the remaining gaps in financial inclusion.

Digital technologies offer affordable ways for the financially excluded—the majority of whom are women—to save for school, make a payment, get a small business loan, send a remittance, or buy insurance.

The 2010 G20 Principles for Innovative Financial Inclusion spurred initial efforts and policy actions. These 2016 High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion build on that success by providing a basis for country action plans reflecting country context and national circumstances to leverage the huge potential offered by digital technologies.

The G20 recognizes that it is crucial to take concrete and significant actions to advance digital financial inclusion under the guidance of the G20 High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion and of international standard-setting bodies’ (SSBs) principles supporting financial inclusion. Based on the specific circumstance of each country, G20 members aim at taking concrete actions to promote digital financial inclusion at their own country level.

“We endorse the G20 High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion, the updated version of the G20 Financial Inclusion Indicators, and the implementation framework of the G20 Action Plan on SME Financing, developed by the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI). We encourage countries to consider these principles in devising their broader financial inclusion plans, particularly in the area of digital financial inclusion.” —Communiqué of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, 23–24 July 2016, Chengdu, China.