<a href="http://www.fi2020week.org/toolkit/"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-22350" style="border: .5px solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/financial-inclusion-week-graphic.png" width="616" height="392" /></a>It has been two weeks since Financial Inclusion Week 2016 came to a close and we are excited to share a new <a href="http://www.fi2020week.org/toolkit/">Financial Inclusion Week Recap webpage</a> which captures events, blogs, and insights from this year’s global conversation.

By the numbers, Financial Inclusion Week 2016 was a success. We had over 40 partner organizations in 19 countries hold events focused on the theme of keeping clients first in a digital world. Over 1,200 participants were engaged in these events worldwide. Beyond the in-person and online events, there were vibrant conversations on social media. Twenty-three #FinclusionWeek blog posts were shared by a variety of leaders in the industry and hundreds of tweets were exchanged with the week's hashtag. We were thrilled by the breadth of the participants this year. Regulators such as the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority, fintech startups such as Artoo, research organizations such as Innovations for Poverty Action, development agencies such as ADA – Appui au Developpement Autonome, MFIs such as BRAC, and many more got involved.

Financial Inclusion Week 2016 was perhaps an even greater success beyond the numbers. Thanks to the 40 partner and contributing organizations, the week served as a reminder that it is possible to advance financial inclusion while keeping clients first. Participating stakeholders discussed ways to protect and empower clients in an increasingly digital ecosystem and presented many opportunities for doing so, from utilizing digital media for <a href="http://www.fi2020week.org/janautthan-samadayic-laghubitta-bikash-bank-limited">building financial literacy and capability</a> in Nepal, to <a href="http://www.fi2020week.org/financial-sector-deepening-mozambique-1-1">using data</a> to better lend to smallholder farmers, to <a href="http://www.fi2020week.org/financial-sector-deepening-mozambique-1">using digital products</a> as a way to overcome consumer behavioral barriers in Kenya. It is clear that the quickly-expanding financial inclusion community is also expanding its understanding of the end-user.

We encourage you to head to the <a href="http://www.fi2020week.org/toolkit/">Financial Inclusion Week website</a> to explore the insights, videos, photos, and blog posts coming out of the Financial Inclusion Week events. We hope that the conversation around keeping clients first does not stop here. Stay tuned for more event recap materials on the week's site as well as a Financial Inclusion Round-up Electronic Magazine to learn more about the global conversation.

Have you read?

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/10/17/digital-financial-inclusion-seizing-a-3-7-trillion-opportunity/">Digital Financial Inclusion: Seizing a $3.7 Trillion Opportunity</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/10/18/what-is-lost-in-a-digital-financial-world-and-how-to-get-it-back/">What Is Lost in a Digital Financial World - And How to Get It Back</a>

<a href="https://cfi-blog.org/2016/10/19/green-light-for-financial-inclusion/">Green Light for Financial Inclusion</a>

Financial Inclusion Week 2016 - Recap

artoo

Egypt, Arab Rep.

Middle East and North Africa

Digital Financial Services

Delivery Channels

Financial Capability

Microfinance Institutions

Financial Service Providers

Blog Post

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/category/financial-inclusion-2020/"><img class="alignright wp-image-8773" style="border: 0 solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/fi2020_antilogo.jpg" alt="" width="321" height="71" /></a>&gt; Posted by Allyse McGrath, Senior Associate, CFI

Readers of the <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/publications-a-resources/global-microscope">2015 Global Microscope</a>, which spotlights the quality of the policy environment for financial inclusion, often focus on the countries at the top of the pack. However, some of the largest improvements in this year’s report are happening towards the bottom of the ranks. This trend appears on a regional scale, with the Middle East and North Africa, the region with the collective lowest scores, showing the most improved scores in this year’s issue of the Global Microscope. In this region, Egypt serves as an example of a country making huge strides even though it’s not among the top 10 countries. In fact, it scores among the very lowest handful of countries.

Up two spots from 53 to 51 out of 55 total markets this year, Egypt improved its score in 7 of the 12 Microscope indicators. The 8-point jump overall can be attributed to many factors, most notably the government’s introduction of a new regulation which broadens financial supervisory to a burgeoning microfinance sector and its welcoming of new electronic payments experiments.

In November 2014, the Egyptian Government <a href="http://www.efsa.gov.eg/content/efsa_en/efsa_news_en/efsa_202_en.htm">enacted</a>  Law no. 141, more commonly known as the “Microfinance Law”, which created provisions for regulating MFIs in the country, previously excluded from the legal framework. This law expanded the reach of the Egyptian Finance Supervisory Authority (EFSA) which now has control over issuing licenses to microfinance institutions in Egypt. After the law’s issuance in 2014, the number of MFIs in Egypt rose from 400 to 640. By the end of 2015, EFSA reported that it had issued 253 licenses. The law which is aimed at ensuring efficiency, transparency, and risk management also <a href="http://www.shandpartners.com/microfinance-law-egypt/">includes</a> a list of “Executive Decrees” by which licensed institutions must abide.

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/29599398@N06/13114119293/"><img class="alignright wp-image-20774" style="border: 0 solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/13114119293_06a9a029f6_k.jpg?w=490" alt="" width="270" height="360" /></a>These regulations include certain levels of protecting debtor rights, creditworthiness checks, transparency, caps on microfinance loans for each customer, and regulations on how MFIs may advertise their products, among others. It is important to note that at this point, licensed institutions cannot receive any deposits. Their operations are, instead, restricted only to forms of financial leasing. EFSA has also focused recently on expanding and improving its regulation for insurance providers.

On the electronic payments front, in March 2015, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Egyptian Banking Corporation, and MasterCard <a href="http://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/egyptian-government-and-mastercard-collaborate-to-extend-financial-inclusion-to-54-million-citizens-through-digital-national-id-program-2/">launched</a> a partnership aimed at broadening financial access to 54 million Egyptians through an interoperable national ID platform. As part of the agreement, MasterCard will work with the government and private sector agencies to link citizen’s national IDs to the existing mobile money platform. This system will allow the government to issue digital ID cards and move away from cash when disbursing salaries and social benefits. On the consumer-side, the IDs can be used to pay for government fees, mobile bills, merchant purchases, and domestic remittances.

Even with the great potential of both the Microfinance Law and ambitious electronic payments initiatives, the government will continue facing challenges as it (hopefully) continues to move up in the Global Microscope ranks. While the Microfinance Law is a big step, it is far from a national financial inclusion strategy. Additionally, the full effect of the law is still unknown. Specifically, there are concerns surrounding the capacities of smaller microfinance institutions that are, for the first time, regulated, while larger MFIs could be maturing to begin taking deposits. By boxing MFIs into a credit-only box with size limits, the law also cuts off the path that the better MFIs could use to develop into full service financial institutions, including taking deposits. The result can be a microfinance sector that is populated by relatively weak institutions that do not offer a wide range of services.

For more on Egypt’s recent progress and the country’s environment for financial inclusion, read the <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/publications-a-resources/global-microscope">2015 Global Microscope</a>.

Financial Inclusion 2020 (<a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/fi2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FI2020</a>) is a global multi-stakeholder movement to achieve full financial inclusion, using the year 2020 as a focal point for action. This blog series will spotlight financial inclusion efforts around the globe and share insights from key thought leaders in financial inclusion, with a specific focus on quality beyond access.

Image credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/29599398@N06/13114119293/">Laura Cuttier</a>

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/06/30/political-risk-is-keeping-microfinance-ceos-up-at-night/">Political Risk Is Keeping Microfinance CEOs Up at Night</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/09/16/sizing-up-credit-reporting-in-the-arab-region/">Sizing-Up Credit Reporting in the Arab Region</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/12/09/where-the-best-place-is-to-be-an-insurance-providerand-other-insights-from-the-microscope/">Where the Best Place Is to Be an Insurance Provider... and Other Insights from the 'Microscope'</a>

Egypt Records Huge Progress in Policy Environment for Financial Inclusion

Financial Inclusion 2020

Microfinance

Credit

Policy, Regulation and Government Initiatives

Enabling Environment

Trends

I recently attended the annual meeting of the Microfinance Network (MFN), which was hosted by the Alexandria Business Association in Alexandria, Egypt. MFN is a global network of some of the largest and leading microfinance institutions, and its annual meeting has long been known for candid and in-depth sharing of experience among the leaders of these institutions, as this post demonstrates.

Ask a microfinance CEO what’s making his or her life hard these days, and the answer is likely to be politics.

That’s hardly surprising when the speaker is Motaz Tabaa, CEO of the Alexandria Business Association (ABA), one of the largest microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Egypt. On January 28, 2011, when the occupation of Tahrir Square in Cairo held the world’s attention and led to the resignation of then-President Mubarak, it became impossible for ABA to operate. But before the week was over, staff were back on the streets, collecting and disbursing loans, and sleeping at the office to guard the cash that couldn’t be deposited in banks, which remained still closed.

Nearly every MFI in the group had a similar encounter with crisis – consider the political violence (and/or natural disaster) that has touched Uganda, Nigeria, Armenia, Mexico, Haiti, and Bangladesh in recent years. Today, Al Majmoua in Lebanon and Tamweelcom in Jordan are overwhelmed with the attempt to serve the Syrian refugees that have crossed their borders. The CEOs who have experienced such upheaval agreed about the role of MFIs in responding quickly to help clients obtain cash, keep their businesses open, and then rebuild. Given how prevalent political and natural crises are, organizations have developed protocols for responding quickly. Even while we met, Enrique Majos of Compartamos received news of a tornado in Mexico, and sent the Compartamos natural disaster team into action.

There was another kind of political issue worrying many of the MFN member CEOs – political actions directed specifically at the microfinance sector. As they see it, politicians seeking votes from the poor too often see advantages in demonstrating their engagement with or control over microfinance. They over-regulate, compete unfairly through state-subsidized lending, give preference to more mainstream banks, or all of the above.

In Egypt, for example, a new law is being introduced to regulate MFIs. Although the sector has advocated for a regulatory framework for microfinance for a long time, this new law does not appear to recognize microfinance as part of financial inclusion for low income families. It fails to provide a path for MFIs to qualify to take savings, while it pigeonholes microfinance into a restrictive lending range. For example, DBACD, which works in the Nile Delta, has recently introduced a home improvement portfolio. But the new law defines housing as outside the bounds of microfinance, so DBACD will have to drop the product. New regulation is also coming in Jordan, and there are signals that it, too, will be overly restrictive. Similar concerns were shared by representatives from Lebanon and Armenia.

Responses to political risk depend on a reading of the situation and the players involved. In one country it may be important to engage directly (though not publicly) with an antagonistic political figure, but in another case that would backfire. For Sogesol in Haiti, it has been important to cultivate a public image that emphasizes its leadership as a provider of important services for the poor. However, the group warned against counting too much on support from the public. Clients, even relatively satisfied ones, are unlikely to organize energetically to protect an institution.

For Compartamos, the non-political, technocratic approach of Mexican and Peruvian banking regulators has been a bulwark for stable and predictable policy in the face of popularity-seeking actions by various politicians, and so Compartamos seeks to maintain frequent contact and exchanges of views and information with regulators. By contrast, for BRAC in Bangladesh, where the political scene is dominated by two warring political parties, regulators are under a large degree of political control. BRAC’s response, which has served it well for many years, is to stay resolutely unaligned and maintain a low-key public posture.

The members agreed that while global best practices and international experts can be helpful in providing a counterweight to populist proposals, the international card must be played with great discretion so as not to provoke a hardening of the stance of the very people the MFI would most like to influence.

Finally, members agreed that maintaining institutional health is an essential political risk mitigation strategy, including adequate capital cushions, to enable an institution to weather the turns of political fortune sure to come its way.

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2013/11/08/the-risk-management-initiative-in-microfinance-rim-mapping-the-road-to-risk-management/">The Risk Management Initiative in Microfinance (RIM): Mapping the Road to Risk Management</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2013/04/23/how-can-mfi-boards-be-explicit-about-risk-strategy-and-appetite/">How Can MFI Boards Be Explicit about Risk Strategy and Appetite?</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2014/07/11/brac-microfinance-director-shameran-abed-on-client-protection-balancing-credit-and-savings-and-the-evolving-financial-inclusion-landscape/">BRAC Microfinance Director Shameran Abed on Client Protection, Balancing Credit and Savings, and the Evolving Financial Inclusion Landscape</a>

Political Risk Is Keeping Microfinance CEOs Up at Night

Compartamos Banco

Bangladesh

South Asia

Haiti

Latin America and The Caribbean

&gt; Posted by Center Staff

[getty src="542571629?et=Huo755fiR5Rb_e2CnXH30w&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=srJfCk0jO48ZTQ4mRuS3ZDhPgrEJ9-x1PTf2oSEzVyI=" width="508" height="339"]

A new paper from MasterCard corroborates recent findings on persistent gaps in the financial inclusion of women, indicating that in India <a href="http://insights.mastercard.com/theconnectorsproject/assets/documents/RegionalReport-India-English.pdf">58 percent</a> of women report difficulty accessing credit, savings, or jobs because of their gender. The paper is part of MasterCard’s <a href="http://insights.mastercard.com/theconnectorsproject/">Connectors Project</a>, which examines the migration of excluded populations into progressive economic inclusion. The recently-released Global Findex data found that between 2011 and 2014, the gender gap in access to financial services remained steady at 9 percent in developing countries.

The reported difficulty faced by women in India was higher than that of the paper’s other surveyed countries: Indonesia, Egypt, and Mexico. Across all four countries, 33 percent of women expressed these challenges. Across all genders, in India, 67 percent of respondents reported worrying about money they owe to others and 82 percent worry about their future prospects. Along with women, ethnic and religious minorities in India reported additional challenges in economic participation. Fifty-eight percent said it was difficult to get jobs or credit because of their ethnicity or religion – compared with 28 percent across the surveyed countries. Whether or not these women and ethnic/religious minorities do in fact face discriminatory treatment, awareness of their perception is critical. In accessing banking services for the first time, or pursuing economic opportunities, trust and confidence can be a make-or-break.

The new Global Findex data indicated that between 2011 and 2014, 700 million people gained access to accounts, but the discrepancy between access for men and women didn’t improve. However, there were some bright spots. On the whole, in 2011 more than half of the world’s women didn’t have financial access, whereas by 2014 58 percent of women globally had an account in a formal financial institution. In high-income OECD economies, the gender gap is nonexistent. In the Philippines, women are more likely to have a formal account than men.

Leora Klapper, the Findex’s chief architect, <a href="http://www.trust.org/item/20150421184902-4usvh/">points</a> to mobile money, digitizing transfers and payments, and formalizing savings as avenues to improve gender parity. In Kenya, for example, women are less likely to have a traditional account at a formal financial institution but more likely than men to have a mobile money account. Eighty million women worldwide receive government social benefits or wages in cash, creating a huge opportunity for digitizing transfers as an on-ramp to financial inclusion. Similarly, 210 million women in developing countries are paid for their agricultural work in cash, and 175 million women in developing countries don’t save through formal means but through a savings club or person outside the family.

Tandem to increased outreach, to improve perceptions of financial services, treatment of clients needs to improve. Not exclusive to women and ethnic/religious minorities, a recent “mystery shopping” <a href="http://www.nseindia.com/research/content/NSE-IFMR_Paper_5.pdf">study by NSE and IFMR</a> in Chennai, India found that attempts to open BSBDAs (Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts) and low-cost accounts were almost always met with staff refusing to offer the BSBDA, and vehement discouragement from opening other lower-cost accounts. The research team cautions against driving G2P transfers until banks demonstrate willingness and ability to meet the necessary standards.

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/03/09/every-day-working-towards-financial-inclusion-for-women/">Every Day, Working Towards Financial Inclusion for Women</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2014/09/15/savings-groups-mobile-phones-and-a-new-solution-for-rural-women/" target="_blank">Savings Groups, Mobile Phones, and a New Solution for Rural Women</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2015/02/26/customer-service-at-brac-empowering-women-through-empowered-women/">Customer Service at BRAC: Empowering Women Through Empowered Women</a>

Fifty-Eight Percent of Women in India Report Difficulty Accessing Credit, Savings, or Jobs Because of their Gender

Mastercard

Indonesia

East Asia and Pacific

Agent Banking

Mobile Banking

Payments

Women

Underserved Groups

<a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/publications-a-resources/browse-publications/534-2013-global-microscope"><img class="alignright wp-image-16543" style="border: 2px solid #000000" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/microscope.png" alt="" width="280" height="353" /></a>If there’s one thing we’ve learned in taking a close look at financial inclusion efforts around the world, it’s that context matters. That’s why we are excited to be part of the team releasing the <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/publications-a-resources/browse-publications/534-global-microscope">Global Microscope 2014: The Enabling Environment for Financial Inclusion</a>. The Microscope is carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) with sponsorship and guidance from the Multilateral Investment Fund of the IDB, CAF, and Citi. The Microscope evaluates the environment for financial inclusion in 55 different countries and provides powerful signals to policymakers in each country on their progress. Which countries topped the list and which have the most room to grow?

We’ll tell you, but first, it’s important to know what the results mean. Each country inspected in the Microscope is assessed on 12 indicators that consider best practices in national regulatory environments and institutional support for providers serving clients at the base of the pyramid. Indicators range from government support for financial inclusion, to supervision of microfinance and other financial products, the status of credit reporting, regulations governing mobile banking and, last but not least, consumer protection.

This year is an important one in the publication’s eight year history because the focus shifted from microfinance to the environment for financial inclusion, a process that involved adapting the framework to account for today’s diversity of providers and products. What we were surprised by, however, was just how little a difference this made in the rankings. We charted last year’s results on the microfinance environment against this year’s results on the financial inclusion environment and we found a very high correlation between the two (see figure below). Environments that are enabling for microfinance are often environments that are enabling for financial inclusion. Six countries from last year’s top 10 were in this year’s top ten.

<a href="http://bit.ly/1s9k6T0"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-16546" src="https://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/microscope-figure.png" alt="" width="600" height="290" /></a>

So, who leads the pack? Here’s the list of the top 10 countries and their scores (on a scale of 0 to 100).
1) Peru -- 87
2) Colombia -- 85
3) Philippines -- 79
4) Chile -- 66
5) Mexico and India (tie) -- 61
7) Bolivia and Pakistan (tie) -- 58
9) Cambodia and Tanzania (tie) -- 56
There were three very clear champions: Peru, Colombia, and the Philippines, whose scores are well above the next-ranked country, Chile. Peru and Colombia performed strongly across the board, scoring in the top five on nearly all indicators. The Philippines’ inclusion environment ranked well in part due to its capable regulator, optimal credit regulation, and effective dispute-resolution mechanisms.

The wide range of performance is notable. Top-scoring Peru secured 87 out of a possible 100 points, while lowest-ranked Haiti only managed 16, and there are countries spread rather evenly throughout the whole scoring distribution. This reveals a very wide range of attention to and progress on financial inclusion across the world. This range is borne out by the finding that a third of countries have active national financial inclusion strategies with targets, a third have strategies that remain vague or patchy, and a third have not made any formal commitment to financial inclusion.

Regionally, both Latin America and the Caribbean and East and South Asia score well. While the Middle East and North Africa region had the lowest regional average score, low scores are present among countries in several regions: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Egypt, Yemen, and Haiti.

East and South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are the leading regions in regulation for electronic payments. Kenya and Tanzania in particular stand out for their strong regulation conducive to the growth of mobile payments, and Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka for their effective e-pay infrastructure.

The Microscope found that countries that had strong institutional support – credit reporting, client protection, accounting standards – often performed very well overall, and countries that had weak institutional support performed poorly. Countries at the bottom of the rankings performed especially poorly on measures of institutional support.

The Microscope report, with its country profiles, provides a rich source of information for further research. It also provides a stimulus for policymakers to focus on areas for improvement and to look to the leaders for inspiration and example.

For more detail, including country breakdowns and rankings, you can download the report <a href="http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/publications-a-resources/browse-publications/534-global-microscope">here</a>.

Graphic credits: <a href="http://bit.ly/1s9k6T0">'Global Microscope 2014'</a>

Have you read?

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2013/12/17/defining-the-path-to-financial-inclusion-in-peru/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Defining the Path to Financial Inclusion in Peru</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2013/10/03/global-microscope-finds-the-world-getting-more-microfinance-friendly/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Global Microscope Finds the World Getting More Microfinance-Friendly</a>

<a href="http://cfi-blog.org/2012/12/20/putting-a-microscope-on-client-protection-in-microfinance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Putting a Microscope on Client Protection in Microfinance</a>

&nbsp;

The 'Global Microscope 2014': Results and Surprises

Bolivia

Cambodia

Chile

Congo, Dem. Rep.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenya

Madagascar

Pakistan

Philippines

Sri Lanka

Yemen, Rep.

Financial Inclusion Strategy

Mayada El-Zoghbi

Managing Director

Allyse McGrath

Elisabeth Rhyne

Sonja Kelly

The majority of Kenyans have mobile money accounts; their activity demonstrates digital financial services’ potential. Accion helps Kenyan innovators harness emerging technologies to create new financial services.