Financial Inclusion

With less than three years to reach the Universal Financial Access goal by 2020, Moderator Francine Lacqua of Bloomberg led a discussion in a packed Preston Auditorium on how we can push forward to meet this goal. It began with a conversation between President Jim Yong Kim and H. M. Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development. Highlighting data from the recently launched Findex, both agreed that achievements in financial inclusion have been made, but key steps are still needed between now and 2020. H. M. Queen Máxima explained that financial inclusion is a win-win for everyone but leadership is needed from the public sector and the private sector. Dr. Kim emphasized how technology can help provide people globally with access to capital and markets, and can really turn inequality around. During the event’s second half, a wider panel discussion focused on how technology can speed up progress toward financial ...

This is a Facebook Live interview. Watch the replay! As part of our Spring Meetings 2018 Interview Series, we will be talking with Jean Liu, President, Didi Chuxing, China, to discuss how technology-driven online platforms can facilitate access for women entrepreneurs as providers and users of goods, services, and capital, and showcase how initiatives such as the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) are enabling women to overcome financial and other market barriers.  /*-->*/

Productivity is slowing down around the world in advanced, emerging and developing economies alike. Yet, accelerating productivity growth remains key to sustaining inclusive growth. With no consensus on either the causes of the current decline or the actions to address it, there remains much analysis and debate on the subject. Join senior policymakers and analysts from East Asia and Latin America for a discussion on what has worked and what still needs to be done to boost productivity in order to sustain inclusive growth.

Financial inclusion has emerged as a critical development challenge. Fintech innovation and successes from emerging countries and the private sector show tangible progress toward Universal Financial Access 2020. But de-risking, where global financial institutions are restricting relationships with remittance companies and certain local banks because of perceived anti-money laundering risks, is undermining these efforts. Join us LIVE to hear about emerging countries’ innovative approaches toward financial inclusion and learn how countries can manage de-risking.

Despite low interest rates, global growth has remained low driven by a simultaneous slowdown in most emerging markets, falling commodity prices, and flagging trade and capital flows. Join ministers from resource rich as well as importing countries and others as they discuss the challenges and opportunities to promote inclusive growth under a low interest rate and commodity prices scenario. The panel will address questions related to low global growth and commodity prices including why has global growth remained so low? How are countries weathering the global slowdown? Is this a transitional situation, where commodity importers are slowly reacting to the lower prices, while commodity exporters are struggling to adjust to the downturn? Or is low growth/low commodity prices/low interest rates, the new normal? What reforms are needed to reignite inclusive growth? Is there a need for greater collective action? Related Links: World Bank and Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management IEG Report: World Bank Group Engagement in Resource-Rich Countries

Emerging markets and the developing world are at the center of the current slowdown in global growth. How are low commodity prices and slowing trade affecting countries and the effort to reduce poverty? Join us as the World Bank’s chief economists describe current conditions and the outlook for each developing region.

Universal financial access, a goal the World Bank Group is committed to accomplishing, hinges on closing the persistent gender finance gap. How come 1.1 billion women, for example, still don’t have a bank account? Should we promote more women into leadership roles in the industry, gather more gender-disaggregated data to learn how to better reach unbanked women, make sure women have greater access to mobile phones, or better communicate the business case to banks and other financial institutions? These questions will be at the heart of the debate among industry leaders and economists during the annual Gender & the Economy event. Each speaker will highlight some of the business benefits and best practices for unlocking financial access for women, so that they as well as men can thrive as entrepreneurs, leaders, employees and customers. The event will also mark the occasion of the eighth-annual IFC CEO Gender Award. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, bestows this honor to recognize ...

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, presented a visionary approach to attaining universal financial access by 2020.

Join International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim as they engage with representatives from global Civil Society Organizations in an interactive town hall event. The heads of the two institutions will discuss with civil society the major economic and development challenges facing the global community, and how the institutions are working to end extreme poverty, promote economic stability, and boost jobs and growth.

Over 2.5 billion adults do not have access to quality, affordable financial services, using instead informal methods to save, borrow, and secure their assets. Access to finance also remains a considerable obstacle for small and medium size enterprises, as financial systems remain too underdeveloped to serve their needs. Challenges remain toward building a more inclusive financial sector that can spur economic growth and reduce poverty levels. Join World Bank Group President Kim, H.M. Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development, Honorary Patron of the G20 GPFI, government ministers, and banking CEOs for a panel on how broader financial inclusion can be achieved through the use of multi-stakeholder partnerships and technology to enable business model innovation. In partnership with the World Economic Forum.