The level of access to financial services in the Lao PDR is low, especially for the poor, as is the general level of development of the financial sector and related infrastructure of the country. Only 25% of households have access to formal and semi-formal suppliers of finance, while the vast majority of Laotians relies on selfgenerated wealth, informal market funding, or limited traditional micro-finance activities for financing. The formal financial sector engages primarily in large volume transactions catering to the needs of a handful of entrepreneurs in major urban centres; the penetration of formal bank branch networks is amongst the lowest in the world. Access is also constrained by the relatively small number of FSPs licensed to offer the full range of financial services to poor households and micro-entrepreneurs as a result of the underdeveloped capacity of many FSPs that serve poor households and micro-entrepreneurs.