The goal of financial inclusion is to develop financial markets that responsibly serve more people with more products at lower cost. Financially inclusive markets comprise a broad, interconnected ecosystem of market actors and infrastructure delivering financial products safely and efficiently to low-income customers. These market actors may include banks, financial cooperatives, e-money issuers, payment networks, agent networks, insurance providers, microfinance institutions, and more.
Financial inclusion efforts today build upon the work of microfinance providers over the last several decades. What began as the provision of loans to poor people for the purpose of building microenterprises has evolved into a global effort to provide poor people with access to a range of financial products and services. Research and experience demonstrate that, in addition to using credit, low-income people save, make payments, use insurance, and make use of a variety of other tools to manage their complex financial lives. Financial inclusion efforts seek to make these and other products available to everyone in a safe, cost effective, and convenient manner.
