Next Generation Access to Finance

This report describes proceedings at a conference that discussed new financial services technologies, with an emphasis on credit reporting and mobile banking. Participants representing over 100 organizations from 60 countries attended the conference. Conference participants described their personal experiences in experimenting with new technologies for offering financial products. Recognizing that these were experiments and innovations, they stated that much needed to be achieved to realize the true potential of new technologies. The conference emphasized the need for:

• Small businesses to outgrow labor intensive practices and extend access to as many of the world's disenfranchised as possible;
• All stakeholders to stay focused on the broader objective of financial access expansion to the worlds poorest;
• Public-private partnerships that cut across various industry sectors to make this technological revolution happen and have impact on a significant scale;
• Financial institutions to maintain an open perspective, while understanding implications of adopting new technologies vis-à-vis data sharing practices.