Imagine if everyone had access to vaccines and medicines, but many didn’t work or caused major side effects. The same can be true for financial ecosystems, which can be inclusive yet not responsible; a finding of CGAP’s global research that has been further corroborated by the latest World Bank Global Findex Database 2025.
Progress in expanding access to financial services in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) is commendable: the latest Findex reports that the share of adults in LMICs who save formally using an account rose by 16 percentage points since 2021, and 75% now have an account (compared with 79% globally), an increase of 80% over the last decade. Technology has driven much of this growth, with digital financial services (DFS) expanding rapidly. In 2024, 81% of account owners in LMICs made or received digital payments, and over half of LMIC adults have digitally enabled accounts.
But whilst this is undeniably good news, the latest Findex also provides useful data on five major challenges to consumers using DFS safely and to their full potential.
1) Risk of fraud
CGAP’s global research found that fraud is among the fastest growing risks for digital finance users. The OECD Consumer Finance Risk Monitor, covering over eighty jurisdictions, also reported rising scams and frauds. Findex adds to this, showing that nearly one in five adults with a phone globally have encountered a scam. This rises to nearly 30% in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. National surveys undertaken between 2020 and 2024 by CGAP in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Burkina Faso, and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) surveys in Nigeria, Bangladesh, Kenya and Uganda also show high exposure to scams among digital finance users, despite different methods, samples, and years. For example, in Senegal, 43% of DFS users were victims of scams.
The latest Findex report also shows that a very small percentage of mobile phone owners lost money to scams in the past year: 2% in Sub-Saharan Africa and about 1% in Latin America and the Caribbean. CGAP surveys found 8% of DFS users in Senegal and 5% in Côte d’Ivoire lost money to fraud.
Scams and fraud data need to be monitored more closely because Artificial Intelligence (AI), while full of promise for financial inclusion, may also help fraudsters create deepfakes and crack passwords, increasing scam risks in the future. In this context, authorities, providers, and other ecosystem actors will need to regularly update their tools to identify and reduce fraud. Having a robust, collaborative approach for reporting and tracking will be key; for example, since 2023, Brazil’s central bank has required authorized FSPs - such, payment providers and fintech lenders - to share data on fraud occurrences and attempts in payments, deposits, and credit within 24 hours of detection.
2) Lack of transparency
The Findex shows that 13% of adults in LMICs who received government transfers or pensions into accounts paid higher than expected withdrawal fees. In some countries this represented up to 7% of all adults, and people experienced higher unexpected fees when withdrawing their salary payments.
What is worrying is that this appears to only be the tip of the iceberg, covering a fraction of financial services and consumers. Looking at digital finance users - a broader sample - CGAP and IPA have found even higher percentages facing unexpected fees. For example, in Senegal we found that 15% of DFS users faced unexpected charges in 2022 and 13% in Côte d’Ivoire in 2024, whilst IPA recorded 23% in Nigeria in 2024.
Financial consumer protection authorities and other actors in the financial ecosystem must closely monitor different kinds of transparency-related risks such as lack of information on digital payment transaction costs. In Côte d’Ivoire, a repeat national survey showed that efforts from authorities and providers to improve transaction cost transparency reduced the share of people completing transactions without cost information from 36% in 2022 to 6% in 2024.
3) Limitations in consumer capability
The rapid growth of digital finance is often outpacing users’ financial capability. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Findex data shows about 25% of mobile money account owners sent money to the wrong recipient, with half not recovering their funds.
CGAP surveys found 34% of DFS users in Senegal, 27% in Côte d’Ivoire, and 25% in Burkina Faso made similar errors, and IPA found that 35% of DFS users sent money incorrectly in Kenya.
While three-quarters of LMIC mobile money users have phone passwords, this drops to half in SSA, with women even less protected. Only 60% of all mobile phone owners in LMICs use passwords, and only about a third of women with a phone in South Asia and SSA have a PIN or password and can change it. CGAP surveys show many DFS users need help: 32% in Burkina Faso, 16% in Senegal, and 17% in Côte d’Ivoire.
Financial education programs do not always have a long-term impact on consumer behavior, but they have more chances of being successful if they meet certain conditions such as focusing on practical experience and simplified messages. However, capability is not solely the consumer’s responsibility; providers must offer services that are understandable and usable for low-income users.
4) Underdeveloped digital infrastructure
Limitations in device access can also limit participation in DFS, even though 86% of adults own a mobile phone globally and 67% of adults in LMICs have used the internet in the past three months. For those who can access DFS, lack of reliable mobile and internet networks, and limited digital skills are major barriers to safe DFS use.
Mobile coverage is a particularly significant obstacle. In India, 29% of adults without phones cite lack of coverage as a reason. The GSMA Global Connectivity report also lists poor connectivity as a top barrier to mobile internet expansion in several large LMICs. In Côte d’Ivoire, CGAP found that 30% of DFS users struggled with transactions due to poor networks, and in Burkina Faso, consumers identified it as a primary risk.
There are many private and public sector solutions that can contribute to improving network reliability. For example, Nubank used Splunk’s AI-powered observability and Information Technology Service Intelligence to enhance network reliability and security, improving network quality, speeding up diagnosis and response. The solution saved customers 113 million hours of wait time and reduced their bank fees by more than four billion dollars.
5) The scale of risks may threaten consumers’ trust
Trust also remains a lingering challenge. The latest Findex reports that 22% of unbanked adults in LMICs and nearly one in three in Latin America and the Caribbean distrust financial institutions. For mobile money, 18% of adults without accounts worry about safety, rising to 26% in Central Africa.
Building and retaining trust requires more than just access. The latest Findex data shows that the financial ecosystem remains confusing, unreliable, and open to abuse for many.
Let’s make inclusion more responsible
The growing use of consumers’ personal data combined with rapid advances in AI are creating new opportunities, especially with open finance regimes, but may accelerate data misuse, for example, with the expansion of digital credit.
Providers must design services that better meet consumers’ needs, enhance their financial health, and are safe to use. In parallel, financial authorities need to build stronger regulatory and supervisory frameworks that protect consumers. They need to monitor the market with a broad range of tools, such as national surveys. Having such data will enable them to develop action plans to reduce risks and build more responsible digital finance ecosystems.
With digital financial services set to continue growing at breakneck speed, the time for action is now. Ultimately, financial inclusion will only be able to fulfill its promise when it is also safe, fair, and trusted.
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