“Legal barriers continue to impede women’s access to financial services” according to the 2019 Global Microscope
The Global Microscope 2019.The Enabling Environment for Financial Inclusionhas been published. This year the Microscope incorporates a gender perspective “to better understand how financial inclusion policies affect women differently, and how policymakers can narrow the gender gap in financial inclusion”.[1] Therefore, 11 new gender-focused indicators have been added.
The Global Microscope assesses the practices of governments and regulators in 55 countries to increase financial inclusion. It focuses on the regulatory and policy environments. The Microscope covers 5 domains:
Government and Policy Support
Stability and Integrity
Products and Outlets
Consumer Protection
Infrastructure.
According to the Microscope, the enabling environment for financial inclusion has improved globally. The analysed countries have incorporated digital approaches to financial inclusion, and cyber-security and data protection laws are evolving. Regarding gender perspective, only few governments collect data on women’s financial inclusion or include actions targeting women in their national strategies. In addition, lack of access to internet, mobile phone and ID, affects women’s financial inclusion. Finally, in most of the countries, women are still a minority in financial service boards of directors and executive committee members.
For more information and read the report click here
[1] Global Microscope 2019. The Enabling Environment for Financial Inclusion, The Economist. Intelligence Unit, 2019, p. 5, https://content.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/EIU_Microscope_2019.pdf
