Emerging Policy Approaches to Advance Digital Financial Inclusion

05/23/2017 - 12:01pm

G20 Finance ministers and central bank governors, gathered in Washington on 20 and 21 April 2017, welcomed the G20 report on “Digital Financial Inclusion: Emerging Policy Approaches.” The report examines how countries are implementing measures in line with the G20 High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion (HLPs) published in 2016—aiming at catalyzing government actions to drive financial inclusion through a focus on digital technologies.

The expansion of innovative digital services, combined with effective oversight and supervision, can help close the gap in financial inclusion by expanding the scale, scope and reach of financial services access and usage. This can help reach the 200 million businesses and 2 billion adults financially excluded and underserved worldwide.

Focusing on the first four overarching HLPs—(1) Promote a Digital Approach to Financial Inclusion; (2) Balance Innovation and Risk to Achieve Digital Financial Inclusion; (3) Provide an Enabling and Proportionate Legal and Regulatory Framework for Digital Financial Inclusion; and (4) Expand the Digital Financial Services Infrastructure Ecosystem—this report analyses the increasing pace and complexity of innovation and adoption of digital technologies in the financial sector, guided by the principle that policy and regulatory approaches must also evolve and be tailored to country contexts.

Photo credit: German G20 Presidency (Family photo).