The first GPFI workshop this year was hosted by the People’s Bank of China on 1 – 2 March 2016, under the leadership of China, Turkey and Germany as this year’s GPFI Co-Chairs. Mr. Yi Gang, Deputy Governor of PBOC, Mr. Tu Guangshao, Executive Vice Mayor of Shanghai, and Mr. Li Guohua, President of Postal Savings Bank of China gave the keynote speeches. Participants discussed issues such as global trends of financial inclusion, reaching “the last mile” of financial inclusion, private sector engagement and the role of government in financial inclusion, focusing particularly on digital financial inclusion, financial inclusion data collection and financial inclusion indicators update.
On 3 March, 2016, the first GPFI Meeting this year was held in Shanghai. Dr. Tianqi Sun, GPFI Co-chair, introduced 2016 GPFI Priorities during China’s G20 Presidency, and summarised the outcomes of GPFI Workshop held on 1-2 March. In the meeting, participants discussed how to formulate the “G20 High-level Principles on Digital Financial Inclusion” to harness digital technologies to promote financial inclusion. The meeting also addressed the importance of improving SME financing and further promoted the implementation of the SME Financing Action Plan. The four GPFI subgroups (Subgroup on Regulation and Standard-Setting Bodies, Subgroup on SME finance, Subgroup on Financial Consumer Protection and Financial Literacy and Subgroup on Markets and Payment Systems) discussed this year’s priorities and working plans.
