With the support of the 2016 Chinese G20 Presidency, the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) developed a new set of High-Level Principles that encourage governments to promote a digital approach to financial inclusion. This is in recognition of the fact that digital financial services are critical tool for a world where there are around two billion unbanked adults, as shown in the 2014 Global Findex Report.
The principles cover the following topics:
- Promote a Digital Approach to Financial Inclusion
- Balance Innovation and Risk to Achieve Digital Financial Inclusion
- Provide an Enabling and Proportionate Legal and Regulatory Framework for Digital Financial Inclusion
- Expand the Digital Financial Services Infrastructure Ecosystem
- Establish Responsible Digital Financial Practices to Protect Consumers
- Strengthen Digital and Financial Literacy and Awareness
- Facilitate Customer Identification for Digital Financial Services
- Track Digital Financial Inclusion Progress
G20 Leaders at the 2016 summit in Hangzhou, China endorsed the G20 High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion:
We endorse the G20 High-level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion, the updated version of the G20 Financial Inclusion Indicators and the Implementation Framework of the G20 Action Plan on SME Financing. We encourage countries to consider these principles in devising their broader financial inclusion plans, particularly in the area of digital financial inclusion, and to take concrete actions to accelerate progress on all people’s access to finance.
– Communiqué of G20 Leaders September 2016, Hangzhou, China
Ros was a lead drafter in the GPFI digital financial inclusion technical team, which was responsible for the drafting of the high-level principles. The technical team was co-chaired by representatives of the People’s Bank of China and the World Bank Group.