The 2015 Brookings Financial and Digital Inclusion Project Report: Measuring Progress on Financial Access and Usage

The 2015 Brookings Financial and Digital Inclusion Project (FDIP) Report and Scorecard evaluates access to and usage of affordable financial services across 21 geographically and economically diverse countries.

The FDIP Report and Scorecard seek to answer a set of fundamental questions about today’s global financial inclusion efforts, including:

1. Do country commitments make a difference in progress toward financial inclusion?;
2. To what extent do mobile and other digital technologies advance financial inclusion?; 
3. What legal, policy, and regulatory approaches promote financial inclusion?

The authors’ analysis also provides several takeaways about how to best expand financial inclusion across the world:

• Country commitment is fundamental;
• The movement toward digital financial services will accelerate financial inclusion;
• Geography generally matters less than policy, legal, and regulatory changes, although some regional trends in terms of financial services provision are evident;
• Central banks, ministries of finance, ministries of communications, banks, nonbank financial providers, and mobile network operators play major roles in achieving greater financial inclusion;
• Full financial inclusion cannot be achieved without addressing the financial inclusion gender gap.