We examine how the development of the digital infrastructure known as the “India Stack”—including an interoperable payments system, a universal digital ID, and other features—is delivering on the government’s objective to expand the provision of financial services. While each individual component of the India Stack is important, we argue that its key overarching feature is a foundational approach of providing extensive public infrastructures and standards that generates important synergies across the layers of the Stack. Until recently, a large share of India’s population lacked access to formal banking services and was largely reliant on cash for financial transactions. The expansion of mobile-based financial services that enable simple and convenient ways to save and conduct financial transactions has provided a novel alternative for expanding the financial net. The Stack’s improved digital infrastructures have already allowed for a rapid increase in the use of digital payments and the entry of a range of competitors including fintech and bigtech firms.

In 2011 the World Bank—with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—launched the Global Findex database, the world's most comprehensive data set on how adults save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. Drawing on survey data collected in collaboration with Gallup, Inc., the Global Findex database covers more than 140 economies around the world. The initial survey round was followed by a second one in 2014 and by a third in 2017. Compiled using nationally representative surveys of more than 150,000 adults age 15 and above in over 140 economies, The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution includes updated indicators on access to and use of formal and informal financial services. It has additional data on the use of financial technology (or fintech), including the use of mobile phones and the Internet to conduct financial transactions. The data reveal opportunities to expand access to financial services among people who do not have an account—the unbanked—as well as to promote greater use of digital financial services among those who do have an account. The Global Findex database has become a mainstay of global efforts to promote financial inclusion. In addition to being widely cited by scholars and development practitioners, Global Findex data are used to track progress toward the World Bank goal of Universal Financial Access by 2020 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The database, the full text of the report, and the underlying country-level data for all figures—along with the questionnaire, the survey methodology, and other relevant materials—are available at www.worldbank.org/globalfindex.

Technology is changing the landscape of the financial sector, increasing access to financial services in profound ways. These changes have been in motion for several years, affecting nearly all countries in the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, technology has created new opportunities for digital financial services to accelerate and enhance financial inclusion, amid social distancing and containment measures. At the same time, the risks emerging prior to COVID-19, as digital financial services developed, are becoming even more relevant.

The paper finds that while there are important regional and national differences, countries are broadly embracing the opportunities of fintech to boost economic growth and inclusion, while balancing risks to stability and integrity.

Asia has made significant progress in financial inclusion, but both its across-country and intra-country disparities are among the highest in the world. The gaps between the rich and the poor, rural and urban populations, and men and women remain deep. Income is the main determinant of the level of financial inclusion; but other factors, such as geography, financial sector structure, and policies, also play important roles. While some countries in the Asia-Pacific region are leaders in fintech, on average the region lags behind others in several important areas such as online (internet) purchases, electronic payments, mobile money, and mobile government transfers. This Departmental Paper aims to take stock of the development and current state of financial inclusion and shed light on policies to advance financial inclusion in the region. The research focuses on the impact of financial inclusion on economic growth, poverty reduction, and inequality, linkages between financial inclusion and macroeconomic policies, as well as structural policies that are important for improving financial inclusion. Given the increasing importance of financial technologies (fintech), the paper also provides a snapshot of the fintech landscape in the Asia-Pacific.

Open banking is a silent revolution transforming the banking industry. It is the manifestation of the revolution of consumer technology in banking and will dramatically change not only how we bank, but also the world of finance and how we interact with it. Since the United Kingdom along with the rest of the European Union adopted rules requiring banks to share customer data to improve competition in the banking sector, a wave of countries from Asia to Africa to the Americas have adopted various forms of their own open banking regimes. Among Basel Committee jurisdictions, at least fifteen jurisdictions have some form of open banking, and this number does not even include the many jurisdictions outside the Basel Committee membership with open banking activities. Although U.S. banks and market participants have been sharing customer-permissioned data for the past twenty years and there have been recent policy discussions, such as the Obama administration's failed Consumer Data Privacy Bill and the Data Aggregation Principles of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, open banking is still a little-known concept among consumers and policymakers in the States. This book defines the concept of 'open banking' and explores key legal, policy, and economic questions raised by open banking.

Open banking ends the proprietary control of customer information by banks and allows customers to share their banking financial data with third parties as a matter of right. It can also permit customers to allow others to remove funds directly from their bank accounts in return for goods and services. All of this is done securely with standardised ‘application programming interfaces’ (APIs). Open banking has developed in different ways and with different objectives across the globe. Open Banking: Global Development and Regulation examines the empowering and enabling regulations that facilitate all of this. This book compares a number of different open banking national strategies. These range from the focus of the UK and EU on enhanced competition to the more collaborative approaches in many East Asian jurisdictions. It also looks at the use of open banking for socio-economic purpose in Brazil and India. Here open banking forms part of a wider government programme to increase financial inclusion coupled with encouraging economic growth. This text will be valuable for fintech companies, policymakers and financial services regulators Its overarching aim is to demonstrate the possibilities and challenges of open banking and how it is changing lives across the world.