Opportunities and Obstacles to Financial Inclusion: Survey Report

This report presents the results of a survey of 301 industry participants from around the world on financial inclusion. Participants included microfinance service providers, investors and members of support organizations.

The report lists opportunities and obstacles in financial inclusion and ranks them in order of significance. It discusses the definition and elements of financial inclusion and key messages that emerge from the rankings. It segments the responses according to stakeholders and regions to highlight the differences and similarities in priorities.

The report states that microfinance has been experiencing a phase of change and uncertainty as revealed by the responses. Messages from the survey include:

• Need for client education;
• Need for MFIs to understand clients better;
• Potential of mobile banking and agent banking in terms of outreach;
• Importance of building capable institutions;
• Urgent need for credit bureau development;
• Need to pinpoint causes and solutions for microfinance crises;
• Need for better regulation;
• Reduced importance of funding and transformation of MFIs into for-profit organizations;
• Negative perceptions about direct government interventions.