Global Standard-Setting Bodies and Financial Inclusion for the Poor: Towards Proportionate Guidance

This white paper aims to raise awareness and frame issues to inform ongoing work by the five global financial sector standard setting bodies (SSBs), namely Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS), the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI), and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), to integrate financial inclusion into standards and guidance that can be effectively applied at the country level.

The paper considers some issues that are specific to the mandate of each SSB, as well as others are jointly relevant to multiple SSBs. It introduces the following linked themes for the SSBs to consider in relation to the process of financial inclusion:

• Financial exclusion carries risks within the SSBs’ spheres of interest;
• Processes of increasing financial inclusion will change the nature of risks;
• Country context in which SSB standards and guidance are being applied matters.

The paper considers three topics that are important to the goal of financial inclusion, namely formalization of informal providers, financial consumer protection and branchless banking. It concludes with general observations and specific recommendations for further engagement on financial inclusion with respect to the standards and guidance of each SSB.