Financial services for the poor: reflections on 2011 from CGAP CEO Tilman Ehrbeck

The field of financial inclusion made good progress last year. Building on the success and experience to date, and learning from new challenges and insights in 2011, a broader vision of financial inclusion became prevalent. This vision reaffirms the basic tenet that the right access to the right formal financial service helps households, microbusinesses, and the economy as a whole. Financial services are not an end themselves but ultimately are a means to improving household welfare. Access to formal financial services needs to give poor families a broader range of choices to build assets, smooth consumption, manage risks, and ultimately, provide a better alternative to the use the traditional, informal alternatives that are often limited, unreliable, and costly. Against that broader vision, 2011 saw progress in five core areas. Read about this progress in a blog post by CGAP CEO Tilman Ehrbeck.

• Poverty Reduction
• Social Performance
• Vulnerable
• Very Poor
• Financial service providers
• Financial Inclusion