Financial Inclusion Week (FIW) 2024: Financing the Future – Shaping the Next Decade of Inclusive Finance

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Financial Inclusion Week! 

This year’s event will present an industry-wide opportunity to reflect on how the inclusive finance sector has evolved over the past decade and what we need to do next to serve the nearly 2 billion people that remain excluded from the formal financial system. 

In 2011, the inaugural Global Findex Report revealed only 50% of the global population had access to formal financial services – and significantly more men than women. Fast forward to 2021, and we saw a sharp increase in access, with 76% of people and 74% of women having financial accounts. We now look beyond access to usage and quality outcome indicators, making the picture more complex. Creative solutions are needed to ensure inclusivity in the next digital decade and avoid erasing the progress of the last 10 years. 

Today, financial services providers have expanded to include fintechs to BigTech, and the use of AI is widespread across product and service design and delivery. What solutions can we implement now to propel financial inclusion forward and ensure everyone can use responsible financial services to make informed decisions and improve their lives?