Financial inclusion : inequality of opportunity in Asia and the Pacific

Policy Brief
01 January 2019


• Country abbreviations
• About the Inequality of Opportunity papers
• 1. Introduction and scope
• 2. Why does inequality in access to financial services matter?
• 3. A new approach to identifying the furthest behind
• 4. Who are the furthest behind?
• 5. Does ethnicity matter for determining the furthest behind?
• 6. Understanding inequality in access to financial services
• 7. Recommendations for closing the gaps
• Annex: Methodology for identifying gaps in access to opportunities
• References
The seventh in the series of Inequality of Opportunity in Asia and the Pacific policy papers (following Education, Decent Work, Clean Energy, Child Nutrition, Water and Sanitation, and Women’s Sexual Reproductive Health), explores gaps between group in access to financial services as measured by ownership of a bank account. It sheds light on the layers of circumstances shared by the “furthest behind” groups and highlights the importance of reaching them as pledged in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.