• Aid policy
• Debt Management
• Education
• Financial sector
• • Banking System Reform
  • Capital Market Development
  • Improving Access to Financial Services
  • Financial Sector Strategy
• Growth and Resources Policy
• Health
• Poverty and Social Protection
• Public Financial Management
• Public Management and Accountability
• Regional Development and Local Government
• Social Development
• Statistics

Improving Access to Financial Services

Over the course of the past decade, developments in the microfinance sector have drawn increased attention to the access of poor households and MSMEs to financial services and the importance of the financial system’s function in the distribution of welfare gains, enabling low-income households to increase their assets, enhance their income-generating activities, and protect them from shocks.. No firm consensus has yet emerged, however, on how best to formulate policies to promote access.  Hitherto, the subject has been hampered by the difficulties of measuring the different dimensions of access, and of comparing them across countries and across time, as well as by a dearth of specific cases and success stories.

OPM staff have made a significant contribution to the progress in achieving clarity in these areas, through:

Research on access to finance and its measurement,

Work on the role of specific institutions such as savings banks, and specific policies such as microfinance promotion policies, and

The development and implementation of country projects to improve access to financial services.

Project Examples

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