With the purpose of promoting financial inclusion among G24 member countries and other emerging economies, The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) and the G24 held the Third Annual G24/AFI Roundtable on Financial Inclusion Policy last month in Washington D.C

Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Professor Njuguna Ndung’u, and World Bank Managing Director, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin spoke about the recent growth of financial inclusion and the importance AFI has played in connecting regulating bodies and lent support to the idea of using south – south exchanges among policymakers to unlock knowledge about how to improve financial literacy and consumer protection.  Dr. Mohieldin said that at present a balance between formalizing financial inclusion and regulation needed to be found to prevent regulation from hindering access.

In addition, other policymakers also took the opportunity to share their insights and experiences:

• The Central Bank of Nigeria is working on solutions to support financial inclusion, one of which is a new and improved version of know your customer (KYC) guidelines. Moreover, agent banking is emerging as a new channel through which to reach the unbanked.

• India’s current model of mobile financial services is bank-led, and due to recent events, consumer protection and balanced regulation are prominent issues. Financial inclusion will also be encouraged through government initiatives.

• The Palestine Monetary Authority has seen many improvements in the financial inclusion sphere. Since a credit bureau was established in 2008, credit has gone up an average of 30% and the active credit scoring system has reduced risks. Microfinance has created jobs for women and financial awareness/literacy programs have reduced the number of bad market practices. In terms of mobile banking, 17 banks are collaborating on launching a single platform.

• The Reserve Bank of Malawi, suggested that financial inclusion initiatives should look into the financial sector as a whole. The bank is encouraged to see the intensive effort put into financial inclusion and mentioned that developing countries such as Malawi need complimentary support from many actors and stakeholders.

• The Bank Al-Maghrib of Morocco highlighted the importance of financial literacy and how it might hold the key to greater financial inclusion. The bank held that a national financial inclusion strategy is the principal starting point, and a fundamental part of this strategy should be an intensive financial literacy program.