How to Measure Financial Inclusion

Financial inclusion indicators can be used to help set national financial inclusion targets and monitor progress in reaching them. When policymakers have reliable performance indicators and survey mechanisms, they can:

diagnose the state of financial inclusion
agree on targets
identify barriers
craft policies and
monitor and measure policy impact

Country-level data and diagnostic assessments inform the design and help sequence reforms. The same data also helps the private sector improve the design and delivery of financial services.

The main types of indicators to consider when measuring financial inclusion are:

Access indicators reflect the depth of outreach of financial services, such as the penetration of bank branches or point of sale (POS) devices in rural areas, or demand-side barriers that customers face to access financial institutions, such as cost or information.
Usage indicators measure how clients use financial services, such as the regularity and duration of the financial product/service over time (e.g. average savings balances, number of transactions per account, number of electronic payments made).
Quality measures describe whether financial products and services match clients’ needs, the range of options available to customers, and clients’ awareness and understanding of financial products.

A fourth indicator to assess and understand how financial inclusion affects 丑辞耻蝉别丑辞濒诲蝉’ and firms’ outcomes, such as firm level performance or human capital investments.

For more detail, read the

Surveys on Financial Inclusion

Demand-side data surveys provide information about users of financial services (individuals, households and firms) gathered through household and firms surveys. This data helps understand users’

financial needs (met and unmet),
barriers encountered when seeking formal financial services and products, and users’ socio-economic and demographic characteristics (e.g., degree of financial inclusion by income, occupation, age or gender groups).

Multi-country DEMAND-SIDE DATA SURVEYS on financial inclusion
survey	description	frequency	country coverage	publicly available
	Cross-country, nationally representative survey of 丑辞耻蝉别丑辞濒诲蝉’ finances	Triennial rounds, annual rounds for selected questions	Global	Yes
(World Bank)	Firm-level surveys, representative sample of a country’s private sector. Broad range of business environment topics including access to finance measures	Every few years	Over 125 countries	Yes
(World Bank)	Nationally representative survey of money management, planning behavior, consumer protection awareness, and usage of financial products	One time, with potential to repeat	Selected countries (17 to date)	Yes
(LSMS)	Multi-topic, nationally representative household data. Module on access to and usage of financial services available for some countries	Irregular	Selected countries	Partially
	Nationally representative study of consumers' perceptions on financial services and issues	Irregular	14 in SSA; India and Pakistan	No
	Information about the living conditions of people with data on financial access rates	Irregular	12 in LAC	No
	Year-long household survey that examines financial management in poor households	One year-long survey	Bangladesh, India, South Africa	No
Source: Adapted from GPFI 2011. “Financial Inclusion Data. Assessing the Landscape and Country-level Target Approaches.”

Supply-side data surveys provide information about regulated financial institutions or through reporting to financial regulators, including

geographical access (branch location),
pricing of products and services, and
penetration or usage of products and services.

Supply-side data can be gathered frequently as a set of rather broad indicators of formal and regulated providers. It’s a low-cost alternative to demand-side data surveys, which are costly and less frequent.

Multi-country SUPPLY-SIDE DATA SURVEYS on financial inclusion
survey	description	frequency	country coverage	publicly available
(FAS)	Cross-country data on penetration and usage of financial services collected from regulators	Annual	Global	Yes
(World Bank)	A snapshot of the payment and securities settlement systems in both advanced and emerging economies	Bi-annual	Global	Yes
(RPW) database	Data on the cost of sending/receiving small amounts of money from one country to another.	Every 6 months	Global	Yes
	Detailed operational and financial statement data from Microfinance institutions	Irregular	Over 110 countries	Partially
	Database with information on public and private banks. Detailed balance sheet and income statements per bank	Irregular	Selected countries	No
FinStats	Data on validated equities, gilts, fund prices, currencies, dividends and indices	Irregular	Selected countries	No
(IFS)	Collects eight financial inclusion indicators from regulators of roughly 190 countries	Varies	Global	Yes
(FSI)	Indicators of Financial Soundness that assess strengths and vulnerabilities of financial systems	Varies	Global	Yes
Source: Adapted from GPFI, 2011. “Financial Inclusion Data. Assessing the Landscape and Country-level Target Approaches.”

Financial Inclusion Data

These data surveys are complementary to each other, and for better policymaking, should be used in combination. Ideally, countries can measure and monitor financial inclusion by combining frequently collected supply-side data, with more detailed demand-side information. Demand-side data can help guide policies toward financially excluded groups, or identify which population groups concentrate the use of financial products and services. (or identify which population groups use most financial products and services.)

木瓜影院 Group, IMF and other international organizations collect a broad range of financial inclusion data:

The , is a public database that measures people’s use of financial products across economies and over time. The data are based on interviews with more than 150,000 nationally representative and randomly selected adults in 148 economies, covering over 97% of the world's adult population. It was developed by the World Bank and Gallup, and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The (GPFI) has the following G20 Basic Set of Financial Inclusion Indicators to help countries set financial inclusion targets and monitor progress. This information is derived from country-led data gathering, including financial institution data collected by financial regulators, and household/firm surveys, and need not be dependent on the global surveys.

Formally banked adults: Percentage of adults with an account at a formal financial institution
Adults with credit from regulated institutions: Percentage of adults with at least one loan outstanding from a financial institution
Formally banked enterprises: Number or percentage of SMEs with accounts
Enterprises with outstanding loan from a regulated financial institution: Number or percentage of SMEs with outstanding loan
Points of service: Number of branches per 100,000 adults

The first four indicators measure the usage and are best obtained from demand-side data. The fifth indicator measures geographical access of formal financial providers. It can be obtained from supply-side data collected by the central bank or ministry of finance. These indicators can be further tailored through sub-indicators to monitor specific issues, such as the fraction of women with financial accounts, the proportion of female-owned firms with a bank loan, or the fraction of adults from rural areas using formal credit.

Countries that don’t collect data to develop these indicators can use Findex, World Bank Group’s , or IMF’s data, or can include questions from these surveys in their national surveys.

Financial Inclusion

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