The main facts and figures about financial inclusion around the world

And the gender gap is not significantly narrowing.There is a persistent 7 percentage point gender gap in account ownership globally; it’s 9 percentage points in developing countries. Both figures are unchanged from 2011. In Egypt, women are half as likely as men to have an account.

• 27 percent of adults receive wage payments in developing countries, and only 41 percent of them use an account to do so.
• Digitizing government wages and social transfers could increase the number of adults with an account by up to 160 million, including about 65 million in East Asia and the Pacific.
• Moving private-sector wages from cash into accounts could bring up to 280 million adults into the financial system, among them almost 85 million adults in South Asia.

Move cash remittances into accounts. In developing countries, 26 percent of adults report sending or receiving domestic remittances – 14 percent in cash and a further 5 percent through an over the counter commercial service rather than through an account.

• Shifting cash or over the counter remittances payments into accounts could increase the number of adults with an account by up to 370 million – including 105 million adults in East Asia and the Pacific.

Bank the farmers. In developing countries, 440 million unbanked adults receive cash payments for the sale of agricultural products, including 125 million in Sub-Saharan Africa and 105 million in South Asia.

• 23 percent of adults in developing countries receive such payments, almost exclusively in cash.
• East Africa is the only region where a significant share of agricultural payments are made digitally: In Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya, over 10 percent of adults receive payment for the sale of agricultural products into an account, usually a mobile money account.

Beyond basic access, are people using their accounts?

Yes. People are using their accounts to make or receive digital payments. In developing countries, 26 percent of adults – or almost half of account holders – use their account to make or receive a payment. Debit cards are also catching on. About a quarter of adults with an account in developing countries use their debit card to make direct payments, including 54 percent of account holders in Latin America and the Caribbean. In Turkey, about 19 percent of adults make payments through the internet.

Accounts are finally overtaking dodgy informal savings methods. In developing countries, 39 percent of account holders use their accounts to save, including 70 percent of account holders in Indonesia. In Sub-Saharan Africa— where more than 60 percent of adults saved in the past year, and a quarter of savers use an account—16 percent of adults save at a formal financial institution. Research shows that accounts both provide a safe place to keep savings and enable economic growth.

Yet, loads of people never use their account at all. 20 percent of account holders in developing countries report having made zero deposits and zero withdrawals in the past year and therefore have what we define as dormant accounts. This includes more than 40 percent of account holders in India.

And massive numbers of accounts are chronically under-used. 1.3 billion adults with an account in developing countries still pay their trash collection, water, and electric bills in cash. Over half a billion adults pay school fees in cash despite having and account. Under-use of accounts is especially widespread in East Asia and the Pacific, where 705 million account-owning adults still pay utility bills or school fees in cash, while 155 million send or receive domestic remittances in cash. The challenge is for governments and businesses to come up with digital products that make accounts cheaper and easier to use than cash.

This article is published in collaboration with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: Jake Kendall is the Deputy Director of Research and Innovation on the Financial Services for the Poor team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Leora Klapper is a Lead Economist in the Development Research Group at the World Bank, in Washington D.C.

Image: A man walks past buildings at the central business district of Singapore. REUTERS/Nicky Loh.