Digital Financial Inclusion and Literacy from a G20 Perspective

Abstract

Digital financial inclusion refers to “deployment of the cost-saving digital means to reach currently financially excluded and underserved populations with a range of formal financial services suited to their needs that are responsibly delivered at a cost affordable to customers and sustainable for providers” (World Bank 2014). In this policy brief, we discuss digital finance and literacy from the perspective of G20 countries. The layout of the policy brief is as follows: in Section 2 we discuss digital financial inclusion and literacy from the lens of income inequality, gender gap, and digital access. We also discuss the impact of the pandemic on digital finance and literacy. Section 3 discusses policies for digital financial inclusion and financial literacy in terms of strategies of emerging and developed countries. In section 4, we present the regulatory and risk aspects of digital financial inclusion. Section 5 discusses what the G20 has accomplished in terms of digital financial inclusion and digital financial literacy (DFL) and what needs to be done. In section 6, we discuss our recommendations to the G20 for the way forward and section 7 concludes.