This update of similar reports published in 2013 and 2017 covers legal and regulatory issues related to financial inclusion and consumer protection across the world. The authors surveyed financial regulators and supervisors across 130 economies. The jurisdictions represented include many middle- and upper-income economies in Central Asia and Europe with substantial representation also from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
The report includes over a hundred figures and tables illustrating the prevalence of legal and regulatory policies and programs in various geographies and segmented by institution type. With regard to institution types, the authors describe the legal and regulatory frameworks that apply to commercial banks; industry-specific banks; “consumer credit providers” (CCPs), such as payday lenders and microcredit companies; and “other deposit-taking institutions” (ODTIs), such as microbanks and savings and loan associations.
CCPs, ODTIs, and non-bank e-money issuers remain unregulated in many parts of the world. Meanwhile, commercial banks generally had less legal restrictions on their activities than did other institution types, with CCPs – when they are regulated at all – being the most heavily restricted, particularly in the issuance of pensions, insurance and e-money as well as the sending and receiving of remittances.
Consumers can open financial accounts remotely in 91 percent of jurisdictions. As for e-money, 77 percent of jurisdictions have passed regulations on the service, and only 74 jurisdictions allow non-banks to issue e-money without partnering with a bank.
Other elements of the report cover customer due diligence; financial consumer protection; consultation with industry and consumers on financial policy; data protection and disclosure; financial and digital literacy; and financial inclusion strategies undertaken by actors in both the public and private sectors.
This is a summary of a paper by Buddy Buruku et al, published by the World Bank Group, September 2023, 98 pages, available at https://www.findevgateway.org/paper/2023/09/global-state-of-financial-inclusion-consumer-protection-2022
By James Stevenson, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
World Bank Group homepage
https://www.worldbank.org/
2017 version of the report
https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/332881525873182837/the-global-findex-database-2017-measuring-financial-inclusion-and-the-fintech-revolution
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