Financial Access 2010 Report

September 16, 2010    

Financial Access 2010 is the second in the series of annual reports by CGAP and the World Bank Group to monitor statistics for financial access in the world and inform policy debate. The series was launched in response to the increasing interest in financial inclusion among policy makers and the development community. The first report, Financial Access 2009, introduced statistics on the use of financial services in 139 economies and mapped a broad range of policies and initiatives supporting financial inclusion.

Financial Access 2010 extends to 142 countries, and builds on last year’s data to update the statistics on the use of financial services, and analyzes changes that took place in 2009―a turbulent year for the financial sector in the majority of economies around the world. In addition to measuring the state of financial access, Financial Access 2010 expands on last year’s work by reviewing three policy areas relevant to the current financial access debate: financial inclusion mandates, consumer protection in financial services, and access to finance by SMEs.

These topics are timely because much of the discussion in the aftermath of the financial crisis centered on the role of the government in financial services, financial consumer protection regimes, and the urgent needs for jobs. Consequently, the report seeks to clarify the role of financial regulators in implementing policies to support the financial inclusion agenda. For the first time it provides a detailed overview of the main features of financial consumer protection regimes, a topic of great interest to policy makers in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Financial Access 2010 also surveys availability of data on SME financing to contribute to the global effort to improve the measurement of SME financing led by the G-20.

As an annual publication, Financial Access 2010 aims to contribute to the efforts to measure the state of financial access at the country level worldwide, to develop a consistent database, and to present the data in a coherent manner for future analyses.