Asia-Pacific Financial Inclusion Summit kicks off in Hanoi

Now in its second year, the summit is organised by the Citi Foundation and the Foundation for Development Cooperation (FDC) in partnership with the Banking with the Poor Network and The Economist Group. This year the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is the official host of the summit.

Themed “Advancing Financial Inclusion in a Digital Age”, the summit will explore the opportunities and challenges of the next generation of financial inclusion, and showcase the latest technology and innovations in financial products and services for the unbanked and underserved.

Michelle Curry, CEO of FDC called the impact of the digital age on financial inclusion “arguably the greatest financial reform of our time” and added that it was “both encouraging and inspiring to see such dedication to the reform evidenced by the large number of attendees at this sellout summit”.

Nguyen Thi Hong, deputy governor of the SBV, spoke about the future of financial inclusion in her keynote address today.

“More organisations are offering new financial products and services that change the form and nature of the market and are shaping the future of financial inclusion. This rapid change presents challenges in terms of management, monitoring and risk of information and system security. Therefore, it is critical to harmonise the goals of financial innovation, integration and consumer protection to maximise the benefits of financial inclusion,” said Hong.

Despite great progress made over the past decades in financial inclusion worldwide, some two billion adults remain unbanked, more than half of which are in Asia-Pacific.

“The inclusive finance ecosystem is evolving to include not only financial service providers, both banks and non-banks, but new players, like mobile money providers and e-money operators, to name a few,” said Brandee McHale, president of the Citi Foundation and director of Corporate Citizenship at Citi.

“What we will explore at this year’s summit is the need to balance new innovative technological advances and creative partnerships with policy that will continue to not only help drive financial inclusion for low-income populations but also protect vulnerable populations,” she added.

Over the next two days, delegates will debate issues, share case studies, analyse trends and explore opportunities to drive collective action. The summit’s delegates include prominent organisations including the Vietnam Bank of Social Policies, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Ford Foundation, MicroSave, Cullinan Group, Friend of Women’s World Banking, The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, World Bank Group, United Nations, Grameen Capital, ACCESS Development Services, Visa, bKash, MasterCard and Yale University.

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