Our goal

To expand access to digital financial services so people in the lowest-income communities around the globe can build security and prosperity for themselves, their families, and their communities. In Kenya, an increasing number of low-income people access financial tools and services from their cell phones.

At a glance

• Today, about three quarters of people worldwide have an account at a financial institution or through a mobile money provider. This is a 50 percent increase in the past ten years.¹ This revolution in financial inclusion has the potential to offer a pathway out of poverty for hundreds of millions of people and to spur broad economic growth.
• We work to expand the availability of affordable and reliable financial services that serve the needs of all, including the world’s poorest people.
• Digital technologies and changes in national policy are clearing away obstacles that once kept these services out of reach for many, but tough challenges remain.
• We work with our partners to support public and private investment in digital payment infrastructure, new regulatory standards, and gender equality initiatives such as digitized government benefit payments, to ensure continued progress toward the promise of financial inclusion.

Building inclusive, resilient economies

“By connecting people and making it easier to move money and share information, DPI is in many ways the modern-day equivalent of the roads and bridges that helped reshape economies in the 19th century.”

Our strategy

We work to broaden the reach of low-cost digital financial services for the poor by supporting what we and our partners believe are the most catalytic approaches to financial inclusion. These include promoting the development of digital payment systems that can help spread use of digital financial services quickly, advancing gender equality to ensure that women share in the benefits of financial inclusion, and supporting the development of national and regional strategies that accelerate progress for the poor and can serve as models.

To achieve these objectives, we work with partners around the world to align on common principles for digital financial inclusion and support policymakers as they work to develop policies and regulations that facilitate growth in digital financial services and provide oversight and accountability. We also invest in national financial inclusion initiatives, through which the largest number of people living in poverty stand to benefit, including in Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia, and East Africa.

We focus not on establishing a particular product or distribution channel, but rather on finding innovative ways to expand access and encourage markets to determine which products and channels are most effective. We support approaches that can provide financial services to the broadest number of people, but we also recognize that countries are at different stages of developing inclusive digital financial systems and their approaches must reflect the distinct needs of their economies and citizens.