Finance & Private Sector Development

Featured

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  Global Findex 2025

  Global Database, July 2025

  Since its launch in 2011, the Global Findex has provided critical insights into financial inclusion, digital payments, savings, and borrowing behaviors across various economies. The database highlights key trends such as the rise of digital financial services and the gender gap in account ownership. The Global Findex 2025 introduces the Digital Connectivity Tracker, a new component that measures access to and use of mobile technology. Combined with financial inclusion data, it offers a holistic view of how mobile infrastructure is expanding access to financial services and improving economic resilience.

  Launch Video |  Download the Report |  Data Visualizations |  Upcoming Policy Research Talk (September 30, 2025)
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  Enabling Digital Wage Payments: Why (and What) Infrastructure Matters for Inclusive Finance

  Literature Review, December 2024

  Digitalizing wage payments can increase account ownership among workers, help them save, and avoid unnecessary fees or commute costs from going to the bank—all while helping firms reduce costs and operate more efficiently. But these benefits only materialize when the right infrastructure is in place. This paper reviews the evidence demonstrating how digital payments can expand financial inclusion.

  Research Insights Feature (April 2025)
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  Designing Better Green Finance: Insights for the Next Generation of Sustainable Investment

  Policy Research Talk, November 26, 2024

  Climate finance is essential for achieving the Paris Agreement's goals, but effectively scaling up investments requires understanding how financial markets interact with these regulations and addressing barriers like greenwashing and misaligned incentives. In this Policy Research Talk, Federica Zeni will highlight new research insights that can help global stakeholders design better regulatory and financial mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainable investments.

  Event Information |  More About Federica Zeni
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  Access to Finance for Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises in Lao PDR

  Technical Note, September 2024

  This technical note examines the state of access to and use of financial services for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Lao PDR. Based on extensive interviews with key private and public stakeholders, data collection efforts, and desk reviews of existing reports, laws, regulations, and policies, it provides an overview of the current status of financial inclusion for MSMEs and the enabling environment for MSME finance.
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  Financial Inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa—Data from the Global Findex

  Note Series, April 2024

  Sub-Saharan Africa has shown significant growth in financial inclusion over the past decade, driven by mobile money account adoption as well as by efforts by governments and financial institutions to promote bank account opening. In a series of notes, the Global Findex team explores the data on financial inclusion and usage in Sub-Saharan Africa, and how having an account affects wellbeing and resilience for African adults.
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  The Global Findex, Financial Inclusion & Resilience

  Policy Research Talk, November 15, 2022

  The COVID-19 pandemic increased digital adoption worldwide, as people sought alternative ways to address daily needs without face-to-face contact. Results from the latest Global Findex survey—conducted in 2021 in 123 countries with more than 125,000 respondents during the COVID-19 pandemic—offer insights into how digitalization of payments contributed to increases in financial inclusion. In this Policy Research Talk, World Bank Lead Economist and Global Findex founder Leora Klapper will discuss the latest Global Findex findings, how technology has expanded access to financial services, the opportunities to close the remaining gaps, and the areas that countries need to focus on moving ahead.

  Video |  The Global Findex Database |  Event Information |  Presentation
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  The Global Findex Database 2021: Financial Inclusion, Digital Payments, and Resilience in the Age of COVID-19

  Global Database, June 2022

  Financial inclusion is a cornerstone of development, and since 2011, the Global Findex Database has been the definitive source of data on global access to financial services from payments to savings and borrowing. The 2021 edition, based on nationally representative surveys of over 125,000 adults in 123 economies during the COVID-19 pandemic, contains updated indicators on access to and use of formal and informal financial services and digital payments, and offers insights into the behaviors that enable financial resilience.

  The Global Findex Database 2021 |  Blog Post |  Video |  Press Release |  Download Report |  Executive Summary
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  World Development Report 2022: Finance for an Equitable Recovery

  Flagship Report, March 2022

  This report examines the central role of finance in the economic recovery from COVID-19. Based on an in-depth look at the consequences of the crisis most likely to affect low- and middle-income economies, it advocates a set of policies and measures to mitigate the interconnected economic risks stemming from the pandemic, risks that may become more acute as stimulus measures are withdrawn at both the domestic and global levels.

  World Development Report 2022 |  Launch Event |  Report Overview |  Video