Millions of People Gaining Financial Access in 2013

As government, NGO and business leaders gather in London, San Paulo, and Toronto over the next several days to discuss strategies to drive a more empowered, inclusive planet, MasterCard executives will deliver the message that the 21^st century offers the greatest opportunity for financial inclusion, and electronic payments offer the greatest hope for advancing it.  View the full press release.

Leaders convene at FI 2020 Global Forum in effort to achieve quality financial inclusion, using the year 2020 as a focal point to galvanize action.

At FI2020, MasterCard president and CEO Ajay Banga was noted as saying, “Innovation in technology is helping governments strengthen the social contract with citizens. But technology alone cannot change the lives of those currently excluded from the financial mainstream – we need public private partnerships.  This year alone, MasterCard launched more than ten programs around the world which are designed to bring financial access to over 350 million people.”

Two examples of successful public private partnerships include:
•  Nigeria, where the government launched a national ID program that combines a biometric identification solution with a prepaid payment functionality powered by MasterCard and is the broadest financial inclusion initiative of its kind on the African continent.

•  MasterCard’s partnership with SASSA and Net1 to digitize social grant benefits.  Earlier this year, the program surpassed 10 million SASSA Debit MasterCard cards delivering benefits to 22 million people.  Through this program, there are now 5 million financially included South Africans who were considered financially excluded just 18 months ago.

Read a recent blog about the role of public private partnerships driving financial inclusion.

Underscoring the importance of technology, a recent study conducted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and McKinsey, Fighting Poverty, Profitably, found countries where more than 70 percent of people can pay electronically, financial inclusion is over 85 percent.