What is Financial Inclusion?
Financial inclusion is defined as access to formal financial services by individuals & firms to use a range of quality payments, savings, credit and insurance services which meet their needs with dignity and fairness.
Financial inclusion helps in reducing poverty by…
- Increasing access to bank deposits that enables individuals to accumulate savings in a safe and secure environment.
- Reducing vulnerability of poorer households via minimizing negative impacts of income shocks.
- Improving access to credit thereby improving asset base.
- Decreasing proportion of low-risk, low-return assets held by households for precautionary purposes.
Financial inclusion Increases economic growth by…
- Facilitating transactions.
- Providing investment opportunities to all segments of the population.
- Mobilizing savings.
- Facilitating inflows of foreign capital (including FDI, portfolio investment and bonds, and remittances).
Financial Inclusion promotes stability by…
- Strengthening financial institutions.
- Broadening markets for financial service providers.
- Allocating capital efficiently among competing uses.
- Facilitating risk management through a variety of services including insurance.
- Making money transfers more efficient and quicker.
SBP Financial Inclusion Program (FIP)
Goal
“To improve inclusive economic growth and to improve income and livelihoods opportunities for poor and marginalized groups in Pakistan”.
Objective
“To improve access to financial services for the poor and marginalized groups and for micro, and small enterprises in Pakistan".
The Financial Inclusion Programme (FIP), implemented by SBP with support of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), aims to transform the financial market with a clear objective to provide equitable and efficient market-based financial services to the otherwise excluded poor and marginalized population including women and young people.
FIP focuses on enhancing access of financial services for lower segment of population. FIP contributed in financial sector development through enhancing governance structure, product development, creating better systems & controls, and developing IT infrastructure, etc. FIP has also been instrumental in meeting liquidity & credit requirements of Micro & Housing sectors, fostering innovations in rural & agriculture finance, digitizing streams of Government to Peron payments, etc, while gender finance & Islamic finance are the cross cutting themes. The key elements for success of the programme lies in its structured governance framework and creating strategic partnership among the private & public sector institutions.
Financial Inclusion Program Components