Global Gathering in Geneva to Address Improving Access to Financial Services for Development

-- Expanding financial sector to include all citizens seen as key prerequisite to meeting the MDGs by 2015

Geneva -- 2 May 2005: A global meeting of microfinance industry stakeholders is taking place in Geneva this week as part of a global effort to address the chasm that separates millions of otherwise “bankable” people in the world from the financial services they need to improve their lives and livelihoods.

The gathering is part of a multi-stakeholder process that will culminate in the dissemination of a “Blue Book on Building Inclusive Financial Sectors for Development” at the United Nations in November. The United Nations Capital Development Fund and the Financing for Development Office of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs are leading the consultative process. These two agencies are supported by a multilateral-agency coordination group composed of the World Bank, the IMF, ILO and IFAD, as well through support from other financial sector experts.

Peter Kooi, director of UNCDF’s Microfinance Unit, said this process is providing a unique opportunity to explore ways to address constraints to the expansion of access to financial services in developing and transition economies. “Having access to financial services, including credit, savings and insurance instruments – something many people in the developed world take for granted – can make a huge difference in peoples lives in developing and transition economies,” he said. “As stated by the UN Secretary General and others, access to financial services in developing countries is critical to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.”

The Geneva session caps off a series of regional meetings that have already taken place in Jordan, Mali and the Philippines. Each session brings together national governments, central banks and other financial institution supervisory bodies, multilateral institutions, civil society, the private sector and stakeholders in the microfinance industry to identify and address the constraints to equitable access to financial services.

Kathryn Imboden, Senior Policy Advisor of the Blue Book project said the centerpiece of the “Blue Book” exercise is to identify the constraints in the development and effective functioning of financial institutions and markets serving the wide-ranging needs of underserved households and businesses and lay out avenues of opportunity to address these constraints. “In many countries,” she said, “the financial sector reaches only a small fraction of the population. Various constraints hamper or block the inclusion of different population groups needing access to financial services, notably women. Access to well functioning and efficient financial services can empower individuals economically and socially, allowing them to better integrate into the country’s economic activity and actively contribute to economic growth.”