Financial Inclusion- News and Views - October 2014

 

October 2014

 

As the Indian government pushes aggressively towards its target of bank accounts for all households, it is important to ensure that this mission leads to meaningful inclusion. This month's newsletter brings out highlights from the Intermedia national surveys that can guide policy makers in the right direction. The report India: Financial Services and Digital Pathways compares the results from the FII (Financial Inclusion Insights) Tracker Survey of 45,024 Indian adults with similar surveys conducted in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The report shows that:

a) Even though India has the highest percentage of adults who have ever accessed bank accounts (48%), just a quarter of Indian adults have active bank accounts. Amongst adults who have bank accounts, India has the highest proportion (47%) with inactive accounts.
b) Less than a quarter of Indians with accounts use more advanced banking services like credit, bill payments, remittances etc. While only 7% of Pakistani adults have bank accounts, more than half of these use advanced banking services.
c) India has the highest percentage of savers and lowest of borrowers. Saving in all countries is done predominantly through banks. Credit sources however differ. Like other South Asian countries, the dominant sources of credit are family, friends and neighbours; yet banks/MFI are reported with negligible contribution in India and 41% in Bangladesh, while private moneylenders are an important source only in India, with 12% of borrowers reporting credit from this source.
d) All countries report remittances mainly through cash delivered by hand, while frequency of remittances was lowest in India and highest in Pakistan.

It is clear from the above insights from the ground that policy makers and financial service providers should focus on raising the transaction levels in bank accounts. For this, it is important to design products and delivery mechanisms of advanced banking services appropriately.

 
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Section I: Policy – the latest from India’s policymakers

Digital India: Emerging Challenges & Opportunities for the Banking Sector

Shri. Harun R Khan, Deputy Governor, RBI, September 16, 2014

Economic & Financial Outlook

Dr. Raghuram Rajan, Governor, RBI, September 15, 2014

Protecting Customers - Safeguarding Stability

Dr. Deepali Pant Joshi, Executive Director, RBI, September 16, 2014

Notifications:

5.29 Crore Accounts Opened under PMJDY-3.12 Crore in Rural and 2.17 Crore in Urban Areas; RuPay Card issued in 1.78 Crore Accounts

No Need to Open Another Bank Account to Avail of Benefits Under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)

Simplification of KYC Norms - Creating Public Awareness

Facilities Available to Account Holders Under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) to be Extended to the Existing Account Holders as Well

Section II: News and Views Digest – the latest from India and abroad

India

RBI on Mission Mode, Refines Financial Inclusion Strategy

Monitor Financial Inclusion

How India compares on financial inclusion against other countries

Financial Inclusion in India: Moving Beyond Bank Accounts

Card payment network RuPay sees boost from PM Jan Dhan Yojana

Don't chase numbers in name of financial inclusion: Raghuram Rajan

Why digitisation of banks cannot be complete unless financial inclusion is achieved

Why isn't the RBI excited about Modi's financial inclusion scheme?

DBT will hold financial inclusion scheme together

Misplaced priorities

Communication – The Achilles Heel of Direct Benefit Transfers – Part I

Communication – The Achilles Heel of Direct Benefit Transfers – Part II

Mobile Money and Microfinance: A Match Made in Heaven or Marriage Gone Awry?

International

Should the interest accrued on the trust or escrow account be paid out to mobile money customers?

New infographic: Mobile money and the digitisation of Kenya's retail payments systems

Financial inclusion in Tanzania: Tigo rewards its mobile money customers

Draft Branchless Banking Regulations in Indonesia – A Review

Simple Messages Help Consumers Understand Big Data

5 Sources of Untapped Innovation in Digital Finance

Can Digital Linkages Revitalize a Tried and True Savings Model?

Leveraging Mobile Phone Data: Tiaxa's Balance Advance

BanKO: Listening to Customers Helps Drive Growth

Big Data for Financial Inclusion: Is Boring Better?

Section III: Research – surveys and studies on expanding access to financial services

2014 Intermedia Pakistan Financial Inclusion Survey

InterMedia, September 2014

Reaching half of the market: Women and mobile money

Elisa Minischetti and Claire Pénicaud Scharwatt, GSMA, September 2014

Unbanked households: Evidence of supply-side factors

Claire Célérier and Adrien Matray, VoxEU.org, September 23, 2014

Facilitating the Market for Capacity Building Services

Mayada El-Zoghbi and Kate Lauer, CGAP Focus Note No. 97, September 2014

 

Research

Operationalising Payments Banks for Inclusion

Policy Brief August, 2014

Direct Benefits Transfers for Inclusion

Policy Brief July, 2014

Financial Inclusion- Two priorities for India's New Government

Policy Brief June, 2014

In the media

Column: Making PM Jan Dhan Yojana a game-changer

Financial Express, 01 September 2014

Will the new financial inclusion plan work?

Financial Express, 18 August 2014

Column: Fix Aadhaar, don't junk it

Financial Express, 27 June 2014

Blog

Competition helps improve access for unbanked households

Banks raise barriers to basic banking

The Modi-fied financial inclusion plan

 
 

Editor: Sumita Kale can be contacted at icfi@indicus.net

The Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion was launched in 2011 to distil and disseminate information on accelerating the poor’s access to high-quality financial services. The Centre is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. http://www.indicus.net/icfi

© Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved. 30th September 2014

 

Newsletters from July 2020 are available at https://icfi.substack.com/

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