WASHINGTON, June 29, 2022—The COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated monetary inclusion, leading to a sharp accumulation of virtual banknotes as a component of the global expansion of formal money services. This expansion has created new economic opportunities, reducing the gender gap in account ownership and building resilience in the family point to better handling of currency shocks, according to the Global Findex 2021 database.
In 2021, 76% of international adults now had an account with a bank, other money establishment or mobile cash provider, up from 68% in 2017 and 51% in 2011. Many more countries. While in surveys beyond Findex over the past decade, much of the expansion was concentrated in India and China, this year’s survey found that the percentage of account ownership has increased by double digits in 34 countries since 2017.
The pandemic has also led to increased use of virtual invoices. In low- and middle-income economies (excluding China), more than 40% of adults who invoiced in store or online with a card, phone or website did so on their own. first time since the pandemic began. The same goes for more than one-third of adults in all low- and middle-income economies who paid an application bill directly from a formal account. In India, more than 80 million adults made their first virtual business payment after the pandemic began, while in China more than a hundred million adults did.
Two-thirds of international adults now make or get a virtual payment, and the percentage in emerging economies expanded from 35% in 2014 to 57% in 2021. In emerging economies, 71% have an account with a bank or other monetary establishment or with a cellular cash provider, up from 63% in 2017 and 42% in 2011. Mobile cash accounts have led to dramatic construction in monetary inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa.
“The virtual revolution has catalyzed the expansion of access to and use of money around the world, transforming the tactics other people use to get payments, borrow and save,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass. “Creating an enabling policy environment, selling payment virtualization, and expanding access to formal and monetary accounts for women and the poor are some of the policy priorities to mitigate setbacks in progress due to ongoing overlapping crises. “
For the first time since the launch of the Global Findex database in 2011, the survey found that the gender gap in account ownership had narrowed, helping women have more privacy, security and about their money. The gap narrowed by 7 to 4 percentage points globally and through nine to 6 percentage problems in low- and middle-income countries since the last survey in 2017.
About 36% of adults in emerging economies now get a salary or payment from the government, a payment for the sale of agricultural products or a national payment in an account. Knowledge suggests that getting paid into a money account can revive other people’s use. of the formal monetary formula: When other people get virtual invoices, 83% have also used their accounts to make virtual invoices. Nearly two-thirds used their account to manage money, while about 40% used it to save, further expanding the monetary account. ecoformula.
Despite the advances, many adults around the world still do not have a reliable source of emergency cash. Only a portion of adults in low- and middle-income economies reported that they could access additional cash in an emergency with little or no difficulty, and turn to unreliable funding resources, adding circles of family and friends.
“The world has a critical opportunity to build a more inclusive and resilient economy and provide a gateway to prosperity for billions of people,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the supporters of Global Findex. database. “By investing in virtual public infrastructure and technologies for payments and identity systems and updating regulations to foster innovation and protect consumers, governments can take advantage of the progress reported on Findex and expand access to money for all who want it. “
In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, lack of identification remains a major barrier to ownership of cellular currency accounts for 30% of adults without an account, suggesting an opportunity to invest in available and reliable identification systems. More than 80 million adults without an account can still get government banknotes in coins: digitizing some of those notes can be less expensive and decrease corruption. product design and a robust and strengthened customer coverage framework.
The Global Findex database, which surveyed how other people in 123 economies use 2021 monetary facilities, is produced by the World Bank every three years in collaboration with Gallup, Inc.
Regional summaries:
PAE
In East Asia and the Pacific, monetary inclusion is a two-part story of what is happening in China compared to other economies in the region. In China, 89% of adults have an account and 82% use it to make virtual commerce payments. In the rest of the region, 59% of adults have an account and 23% of adults have made virtual commerce payments, of which 54% did so for the first time after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Double-digit increases in account ownership have been achieved in Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand, while the gender gap in the region remains small, at 3 percentage points, but the gap between the deficient and adults is 10 percentage points.
CEA
In Europe and Central Asia, account ownership has increased through thirteen percentages since 2017 to 78% of adults. The use of virtual invoices is robust, as about three-quarters of adults have used an account to make or obtain a virtual payment. COVID-19 has resulted in additional use for the 10% of adults who made a virtual business payment for the first time during the pandemic. It adds 20 million banked adults in Russia and 19 million banked adults in Turkey, the region’s two largest economies.
LAKE
Latin America and the Caribbean has noticed an 18 percentage point increase in the number of account owners since 2017, the largest of any region in the emerging world, resulting in 73% of adults owning an account. Digital invoices play a key role, with 40% of adults paying virtually to a merchant, adding up to 14% of adults who did so for the first time during the pandemic. COVID-19 has also driven virtual adoption for the 15% of adults who made their first application bill payment directly from their account for the first time in the pandemic, more than double the average for emerging countries. Opportunities continue to exist for even greater use of virtual invoices, as 150 million banked adults have issued cash-only business invoices, totaling more than 50 million banked adults in Brazil and 16 million banked adults in Colombia.
MAN
The Middle East and North Africa region has made progress in reducing the gender account ownership gap from 17 percentage issues in 2017 to thirteen percentage issues: 42% of women now have an account compared to 54% of men. account ownership through the digitization of invoices recently made in cash, adding invoices for agricultural products and salaries from the personal sector (about 20 million unemployed adults in the region have earned salaries from the personal sector in cash, totaling 10 million in the Saudi Arab Republic). Egypt). Switching others to formal savings strategies is another opportunity given that approximately 14 million homeless adults in the region, totaling 7 million women, have stockpiled semi-formal strategies.
SA
In South Asia, 68% of adults have an account, a proportion that has not been replaced since 2017, there are wide diversifications in the region. In India and Sri Lanka, for example, 78% and 89% of adults, respectively, have an account. However, account usage increased, fueled by virtual bills, with 34% of adults using their account to make or obtain a payment, up from 28% in 2017. Digital bills offer an opportunity to develop ownership and use of the account. , given the predominance of cash, even among account holders, for the preparation of bills of exchange.
SSA
In sub-Saharan Africa, mobile currency adoption has continued to rise to the point where 33% of adults now have a mobile currency account, three times the global average of 10%. Although mobile currencies were originally designed to allow others to send currencies to friends and family who live in other parts of the country, adoption and use have spread beyond those origins, with 3 in 4 account owners mobile phones in 2021 made or earned less than one non-person-to-person payment, and 15% of adults used their mobile coin account to save. Opportunities to create a homeownership account in the region arise with the digitization of currency bills for the 65 million anonymous adults who receive farm produce bills and the expansion of cell phone homeownership, as the lack of a phone is mentioned as a barrier to adopting a mobile coin account. Adults in the region are more involved in paying school fees than adults in other regions, suggesting policy or product opportunities to enable education-focused savings.
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