Payment aspects of financial inclusion - tools to facilitate the application of the guidance and measure progress

Press release  | 
29 September 2020
  • To enhance financial inclusion from a payments perspective, it is important to accurately evaluate a country's current situation and its progress.
  • The new CPMI-World Bank report helps national authorities apply the Payment aspects of financial inclusion (PAFI) guidance for expanding access to payment services.
  • It includes diagnostic exercises and tools to measure, monitor and report progress in the application of the guidance.

The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and World Bank today published the report Payment aspects of financial inclusion: application tools. The report will help national authorities apply the PAFI guidance.
It provides tools for helping national authorities undertake diagnostic studies and to measure and track progress in enhancing access to, and use of, transaction accounts. The tools allow comparisons with international benchmarks and/or with a jurisdiction's own situation over time, and make it easier to follow reform efforts in the area of financial inclusion from a payments perspective.

This report follows the publication of Payment aspects of financial inclusion in 2016 and Payment aspects of financial inclusion in the fintech era in April 2020. The 2016 report outlined seven guiding principles for public and private sector stakeholders and recommended key actions for countries seeking to implement these principles, while the April 2020 report provided additional guidance on recent fintech developments that have relevant implications for PAFI's underlying objectives.

The CPMI and the World Bank note that these tools are dynamic and will evolve and/or need to be updated over time to accommodate new emerging market practices and other relevant innovations.

Notes

The report has been prepared for the CPMI and the World Bank Group (WBG) by a task force consisting of representatives from CPMI central banks, non-CPMI central banks active in the area of financial inclusion and international financial institutions. The work on this report was led by Oya Ardic (World Bank Group) and Magedi-Titus Thokwane (South African Reserve Bank) under the overall guidance of the task force co-chairs Marc Hollanders (Special Adviser on Financial Infrastructure, Bank for International Settlements) and Harish Natarajan (Lead Financial Sector Specialist, Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation, World Bank Group).

The CPMI promotes the safety and efficiency of payment, clearing, settlement and related arrangements, thereby supporting financial stability and the wider economy. It is a global standard setter in this area. The CPMI monitors and analyses developments in these arrangements, both within and across jurisdictions. It aims to strengthen regulation, policy and practices regarding such arrangements worldwide. It also serves as a forum for central bank cooperation in related oversight, policy and operational matters, including the provision of central bank services. The CPMI secretariat is hosted by the Bank for International Settlements. More information about the CPMI, and all its publications, can be found on the BIS website at www.bis.org/cpmi.

The WBG plays a key role in the global effort to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. Its "Universal Financial Access 2020" goal is for adults globally to have access to a transaction account or electronic instrument to store money, send and receive payments as the basic building block to manage their financial lives. The WBG's Payment Systems Development Group supports the development and reform of national payment systems, including international remittance markets, in more than 130 countries. More information is available on the World Bank's website at www.worldbank.org/en/topic/paymentsystemsremittances.