Financial Regulations for Improving Financial Inclusion: A Center for Global Development Task Force Report

This report builds on an earlier one by the Center for Global Development (CGD) and distinguishes itself from other recent publications about financial inclusion in that its focus is largely on regulatory principles and related reforms. It suggests that regulatory changes often are needed to enable the successful adoption and adaptation of new innovations in digital finance, encourage their use, and increase competition among their providers, so that those new technologies can benefit the poor. Additionally, progress in improving financial inclusion must be compatible with the traditional mandates of financial regulation and supervision: safeguarding the stability of the financial system, maintaining its integrity, and protecting consumers.

The recommendations of this report concern the behavior of a wide range of actors—in particular the regulators and supervisors of financial services providers (traditional and new), but also donors, multilateral organizations, other policy advisers, private sector actors, and the various standards-setting bodies for the financial sector. Within these groups the recommendations are directed primarily at policy makers charged with improving financial inclusion through regulations.