Financial Inclusion and Financial Access

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Birkenmaier ◽  
Mathieu Despard ◽  
Terri Friedline ◽  
Jin Huang
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Financial Access ◽  
Financial Products ◽  
Consumer Loans ◽  
Savings Accounts ◽  
Alternative Financial Services ◽  
Small Business Loans ◽  
Institutional Actors

Financial inclusion, the goal of financial access, broadly refers to the ability of all people in a society to access and be empowered to use safe, affordable, relevant, and convenient financial products and services for achieving their goals. Financial inclusion promotes household and societal financial well-being and requires access to an array of financial products and services such as savings accounts, credit cards, mortgage and small business loans, and small-dollar consumer loans. Despite the advantages, too many individuals and households lack financial inclusion and access by being unbanked, underbanked, and/or they are forced to use alternative financial services. Achieving financial inclusion will require participation from many different types of formal financial institutional actors, such as banks, credit unions, community development financial institutions, and national credit bureaus. Social work assists to build financial inclusion and access through practice innovations, research, and policy advocacy.

Quality financial inclusion and its determinants in South Africa: evidence from survey data

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kudakwashe Joshua Chipunza ◽  
Ashenafi Fanta
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Demographic Groups ◽  
Financial Products ◽  
Data Limitations

PurposeThe study measured quality financial inclusion, a more comprehensive measure of financial inclusion, and examined its determinants at a consumer level in South Africa.Design/methodology/approachThis study leveraged on FinScope 2015 survey data to compute a quality financial inclusion index using polychoric principal component analysis. Subsequently, a heteroscedasticity consistent ordinary least squares regression model was employed to assess determinants of quality financial inclusion.FindingsThe empirical findings indicated that gender, education, financial literacy, income, location and geographical proximity determine quality financial inclusion. These findings could inform policymakers and financial services providers on how quality financial inclusion can be promoted through tailoring financial products for various socio-demographic groups.Research limitations/implicationsDue to data limitations, the study was confined to South Africa and did not capture digital financial inclusion. Hence, future studies could replicate the study in Sub-Saharan Africa's context and compute an index that captures digital financial inclusion.Practical implicationsThese findings could inform policymakers and financial services providers on how quality financial inclusion can be promoted through tailoring financial products for various socio-demographic groups.Originality/valueThis study proposed a more comprehensive measure of quality financial inclusion from a demand-side perspective by accounting for important dimensions that include diversity, affordability, appropriateness and flexibility of financial products and services.

scholarly journals Empowering Women through Financial Inclusion in Zimbabwe Is the Gender Gap Not Encroaching This Noble Cause?

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-64
Author(s):  
Lettiah Gumbo ◽  
Precious Dube ◽  
Muhammad Ridwan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
National Development ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Financial Products ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Government ◽  
Financial Awareness

One of the most effective catalysts of economic growth of any nation is obviously financial inclusion. However, in developing countries such as Zimbabwe gender gap is still an impediment to the achievement of financial inclusion for all. Research findings for this paper show that, increasing women’s financial opportunities and financial awareness on how to access financial products and services will go a long way in reducing the gender gap. Furthermore, increasing access to and use of quality financial products and services is essential to inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction. Although the government of Zimbabwe is taking steps to increase women financial inclusiveness, research shows that women in Zimbabwe trail behind men in as far as access to financial services is concerned. Zimbabwean communities remain dominantly patriarchal and women are always lagging behind in developmental projects meant for their empowerment. This paper seeks to assess the implementation of women’s financial inclusion highlighting opportunities and barriers such as the gender gap and how this may be overcome. The study is qualitative in nature and therefore makes use of interviews and questionnaires for data collection. It is envisioned by the researchers that the research findings will be beneficial to women; their empowerment and development and national development. It is hoped to change the way in which the banking and financial sectors deal with women’s financial inclusion for the betterment of their livelihoods.  Furthermore, women’s financial empowerment will improve livelihoods of many families given the caring nature of mothers, sisters, aunts and grandmothers.

scholarly journals Banking on refugees: Racialized expropriation in the fintech era

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (8) ◽  
pp. 1498-1515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Bhagat ◽  
Leanne Roderick
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Disruptive Technology ◽  
Viable Option ◽  
Credit Access ◽  
Financial Products ◽  
Private Citizens ◽  
Global North

Fintech and digital financial services involve the delivery of financial products and services through technology. Fintech companies are part of a financial lending infrastructure claiming to offer an alternative to ‘big banks’, and are often touted as digitally disruptive technology that is rapidly reshaping financial inclusion agendas and improving the lives of the poor. For many refugees living in camps and informal settlements in Kenya, fintech is often the only viable option for credit or microfinance aid. While refugees are often excluded from credit, the spread of fintech as a solution for direct peer-to-peer aid transfers from the Global North to refugees has resulted in the uneven distribution of credit access and livelihood support. Through fintech, private citizens and groups in the Global North are able to disrupt and subvert refugee assistance, deeming some worthy of aid while others face ongoing exclusion. While fintech remains a hopeful source of greater efficiency and empowerment, the direct transfer of aid money masks profit and corporate power by only extending assistance to those refugees who are appropriately entrepreneurial, that is to say those who will start small businesses and pay back their loans. This paper argues that processes of financial inclusion carried out by and through fintech are still distinguished largely by exclusion. In so doing, this paper highlights a theoretical position that refugee governance is embedded in racial forms of capital accumulation and expropriation.

scholarly journals Financial Inclusion, Awareness, and Understanding of Financial Products among People Selected Gewogs (Blocks) of Bhutan

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11S2) ◽  
pp. 485-494
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Financial System ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Financial Products ◽  
The People ◽  
Survey Finding

The financial products that are being offered by the banks in the contemporary era are significant to enhance the primary objective of the banks that is, ‘Financial Inclusion’ (FI). However, due to umpteen reasons, the banks in many countries have failed streamlining the poor and the majority of the rural folk. Bhutan is not an exception as it is in a landlocked country. The Survey finding (2013) depicted a smaller share of Bhutanese involvement in the formal financial system (48%) whereas larger percentage of them involved in informal financial system. Further, the present Governor of Royal Monetary Authority (The central bank of the country), Dasho Penjor in his discussion on the review of His Majesty’s address on 109th National day Celebration in Trongsa stated that the majority of the rural folks are unable to avail banking services extended by the formal institutions. Besides, financial services can be availed by mass only when banks and other financial institutions run some awareness programmes. There are a few literature on FI in Bhutan in general; however literature on the awareness and understanding of financial products of the people are minimal in the country. The present study, therefore, investigates the scenario of FI along with awareness and understanding of financial products of commercial banks among Bhutanese in four Gewogs (Blocks) of the country that is, Bongo, Chapcha, Darla and Samphelling. The structured questionnaire was designed and primary data from 378 respondents were collected. Further, various articles and papers published in survey findings, magazines, and journal articles are used as secondary data sources of the study. The collected data have been tabulated, analysed, and interpreted with the help of Descriptive statistics, Independent t-test and Analyses of Variance (ANOVA).

scholarly journals Marketing of Financial Service: Evidence from Nigeria Financial Market

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-46
Author(s):  
Lucky Anyike Lucky
Keyword(s):  
Financial Market ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Service Marketing ◽  
Distribution Channels ◽  
Financial Service ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Marketing Environment ◽  
Financial Products ◽  
Growing Population

Nigeria financial market is emerging, the growth in institutions and products require a marketing strategy that will meet the needs of growing population. This study examined marketing of financial services. It discussed financial service products, segmentation of financial products, brands in financial market, financial service marketing environment, marketing of financial service through the internet, distribution channels of financial products, strength, weakness, opportunities and threat of Nigeria financial market, the needs for marketing of financial services, features of financial products and pricing of financial products. The study concludes that marketing of financial services is a determinant of financial inclusion, therefore policies and strategies should be advanced by management and regulators in the financial market.

scholarly journals Wykluczenie finansowe i integracja finansowa – aspekty terminologiczne

2018 ◽  
pp. 63-83
Author(s):  
Maria Czarnecka
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Demand And Supply ◽  
Financial Products ◽  
Sensitive Areas ◽  
Financial Exclusion ◽  
Use Of Services ◽  
Social Level

The aim of the article was to present the issue of financial exclusion and define sensitive areas of this phenomenon. The factors that may be relevant for measuring the degree of financial exclusion were analysed. An attempt was also made to determine the difficulties in access to financial services in the context of practices applied by both the supply and demand sides. In addition, barriers to the use of services were analysed as were financial products in terms of practices used by supply and demand. The typology of financial exclusion presented in the article is an attempt to define the type and scope of the phenomenon. Bank exclusion, credit exclusion and exclusion from the savings system are financial exclusion indicators. Each of those types of exclusion affects the economic and social level. Financial exclusion, which is one of the symptoms of the imbalance between demand and supply, is understood here as total or partial access to financial services offered by the market. The article also attempts to analyse the causes of exclusion with the division into supply and demand factors. The typology of financial exclusion proposed in the article may be a contributing factor to the reverse phenomenon, which is financial inclusion.

scholarly journals Revisiting the Impact of Mobile Banking in Financial Inclusion Among the Developing Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 62
Author(s):  
Ummahani Akter ◽  
S. M. Rakibul Anwar ◽  
Riduanul Mustafa ◽  
Zulfiqure Ali
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Bandwidth Allocation ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mobile Banking ◽  
Innovative Strategies ◽  
Financial Products ◽  
The Impact

Financial inclusion ensures financial products and services at reasonable rates for individuals and aims to introduce unbanked people into banking and financial services. The study aims to explore the effect that mobile banking facilities have on financial inclusion in 17 developing countries. From 2011 to 2017, this study took data from the three dimensions of financial inclusion called "Penetration," "Access," and "Uses". This paper took the Sarma model of Index of Financial Inclusion (IFI) to measure financial inclusion. This paper incorporates mobile money accounts as a "penetration" variable and Mobile banking outlet as an "Access" variable with existing model variables to quantify the effect of mobile banking. This research finds that mobile banking positively impacts the selected countries, though the degree of the changes is not symmetric. African regional countries have improved their financial inclusion after introducing mobile banking much better compared to other regions. This study is limited to examining mobile banking effects on selected emerging countries only. Future research may be devoted to developing more innovative strategies and tools to reach out to unbanked people, including people who face disparities in mobile phone ownership and bandwidth allocation.

scholarly journals The level of financial inclusion in Ukraine: Measuring access, quality, and usage of financial products and services

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-67
Author(s):  
Yuliia Shapoval ◽  
Andrii Shkliar ◽  
Oleksii Shpanel-Yukhta ◽  
Kateryna Gruber
Keyword(s):  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Banking Sector ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Banking System ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Financial Products ◽  
Medium Level ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

While financial inclusion is seen as a goal of socio-economic development, there is still no clear understanding of how to measure it. Following this concern, the paper deals with the computation of the financial inclusion index of the Ukrainian economy using an annual dataset spanning from 2008 to 2020 and following the Sarma methodology. The object of the study is a set of indicators of usage, access and quality of financial products and services. The obtained results demonstrate the medium level of financial inclusion. The improvement of financial inclusion is observed in 2012, 2013, 2020 (namely 0.55 – 0.56 in the range of 0 and 1). From 2015 (0.38) till 2018 (0.39), the revealed downward trend affirms that the withdrawal of banks from the market has deteriorated the level of quality and usage of financial products and services. Financial inclusion declined during the cleaning up of the banking system in 2014–2016, just as it did after the global financial crisis in 2009–2010. Despite the development of the payment infrastructure, there is a need to diversify access, increase quality, and quicken the usage of financial products and services due to existing distrust in national financial institutions. Improving financial literacy and consumer protection, and closing regulatory gaps in the non-banking sector are seen as ways to enhance financial inclusion. Thus, financial regulators should establish an upward trend in financial inclusion that will ensure full access to formal financial services and will not adversely affect the stability of financial system.

Improving productivity among smallholder farmers in Ghana: does financial inclusion matter?

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Atta Peprah ◽  
Isaac Koomson ◽  
Joshua Sebu ◽  
Bukari Chei
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Agricultural Productivity ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Living Standard ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
Pooled Data ◽  
Financial Products ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeDoes financial inclusion matter for productivity among smallholder farmers? The authors answer this question by using the sixth and seventh rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey to examine the extent to which financial inclusion affects productivity among smallholder farmers in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a pooled data of the 6th and 7th rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey which are national representative data. The authors model an Instrumental Variable (IV) to correct for endogeneity in financial inclusion and a dominance analysis to examine the effects of access to credit, ownership of savings account and insurance product on farmers' productivity.FindingsResults from the study indicate that financial inclusion significantly enhances productivity. Moreover, credit, savings and insurance products influence productivity at various degrees. Thus, expanding the scope of financial services (access to credit, savings and insurance) among smallholder farmers is crucial for inclusive finance and sustainable agricultural production.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study have implications for financial institutions in the design of financial products that the meet the needs of smallholder farmers.Originality/valueSeveral studies have looked at how access to credit influences agricultural productivity in Africa. However, in recent times financial inclusion has been advocated for because it goes beyond mere access to credit. This paper to the best of our knowledge is the first of its kind to examine how financial inclusion could affect agricultural productivity in Ghana.

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