Doc 526/16 (Vers. 1.1)

Doc 526/1631 May 2016

Vers. 1.1DCA/JOY/RAD

23rd. WSBI Board of Directors & 23rd General assembly

Bangkok, 30 June 2016

4. Report on latest activities

Item 4.2: Universal Financial Access (UFA) 2020 Goal Progress Report

The members of the WSBI Board of Directors and of the General Assembly are kindly requested to note and comment on the WSBI’s 2015 UFA 2020 Progress Report and on the request for more detailed information regarding the numbers of clients and numbers of transaction accounts held by each WSBI member institution going forward.

WSBI UFA 2020 Progress Report

  1. Background

The World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI) is one of the Coalition of Partners supporting the World Bank Group’s Universal Financial Access (UFA) 2020 Goal.

At the meeting of its General Assembly on 23 September 2015, WSBI members pledged to reach1.7 billion customers and add 400 million new transaction accounts by the end of 2020, based on the current membership. This commitment reinforces the continued engagement of WSBI and it members with its ‘Account for Everyone’goal announced by the trade body in 2012, which it re-endorsed at the World Bank(WB) spring meetings in April 2015.

Progress towards the UFA 2020 Goal is being monitored by the World Bank Group and its partners and is announced publicly every year during the International Monetary Fund (IMF)–World Bank annualmeetings.

  1. WSBI 2015 Progress report

Summary

WSBI is pleased to report that it has exceeded its projections both in terms of total numbers of customers as well as transaction accounts as at 31 December 2015. The total number of clientsreached by WSBI members totalled1.549billionagainst a projected total of 1.513billion. This result represents an increase of 2.4%.WSBI members have expanded the number of new clientsby 117 million in 2015. This represents an annual growth rate of 8.2%.

WSBI members achieved a total number of 2.331 billiontransaction accountsagainst a projected total of 2.202billion as at 31 December 2015.This result represents an increase of 2.4%.WSBI members have increased the number of new transaction accounts by 244 million in 2015. This represents an annual growth rate of 11.7%.

Further information on these figures are presented in the graphs below.

Numbers of Customers

The first graph illustrates the total number of WSBI client figures for 2014 and 2015 with a blue perpendicular line illustrating the baseline and a green perpendicular line illustrating the commitment.This shows that WSBI members had 1.549 billion customers as at 31 December 2015 against a projected number of 1.513 billion.This represents an annual growth rate of8.2%. Results are higher than projected by 2.4%.The blue bar in the second graph shows that the total number of new clients was 117 million 2015 against a projected total of 80 million.

The difference between the original commitment and the projection illustrated by the yellowline can be attributed to two main factors. The first is that WSBI has corrected the original 2014 baseline of 1.3 billion customers to 1.4 billion customers based on new data received from WSBI members with their 2015 results. It was deemed appropriate to correct the baseline at this initial stage of the reporting process in order to ensure an accurate picture going forward. The second factor is the projection calculation methodology. This was based on realistic but optimistic assumptionsbased on the data submitted by WSBI members as well as the individual country financial inclusion growth figures registered in the Global Findex between 2011 and 2014. The resultant figures were revised downwards in a conservative approach, as such linear growth rates were not considered fully sustainable over the reference period up to 2020.

The actual data received from members for 2015 in terms of total numbers of clients and total numbers of new clients has however exceeded all expectations as illustrated in the graphs. It remains to be seen whether such good results will continue on this scale or whether 2015 turns out to be an exceptional year.

Transaction Accounts

WSBI members achieved a total number of 2.331 billiontransaction accountsagainst a projected total of 2.202billion as at 31/12/15. In total, WSBI members have increased the number of new transaction accounts by 244 million against a projected total of 115in 2015. This represents an annual growth rate of 11.7%. Results are higher than projected by 5.9%. These results are illustrated in the graph below.

Here again it remains to be seen whether such good results in terms of transaction accounts will continue on this scale or whether 2015 turns out to be an exceptional year. The earlier remark about the baseline and the realistic but conservative projection calculation methodology also applies to these graphs.

Results by Region

All WSBI regions are currently on target to achieve the UFA 2020 pledge as illustrated in the graphs below.

Clients

It should be noted that the good results in Asia Pacific (+11.1% growth, +3.4% above projected target) are driving the overall good results and are mainly due to three large members. This is followed by the Americas: +3.5% growth, +0.1% above projected target. Despite a relatively smaller client base, Africa has expanded relatively (+5.3% growth, +2.7% above projected target) but its contribution remains small in absolute figures. Growth in Europe (+0.17%) is slow as expected.

Transaction accounts

Similar trends can be highlighted for the total number of accountsas illustrated in the graphs below:

  1. Asia-Pacific = +12.8% growth, +6.0% above projected target
  2. The Americas = +14.7% growth, +11.3% above projected target
  3. Africa = +5.6% growth, +2.7% above projected target
  4. Europe = +0.5% growth, -1.0% below projected target
  1. Conclusionand next steps

It can be concluded that the results outlined in this paper are very encouraging and that WSBI and its members are well on track to meet their commitment to the World Bank Group’s UFA 2020 goal.

Going forward, it is however important for all WSBI members to provide at least the minimum data requested by WSBI on their total number of clients and total number of transaction accounts in order to ensure that WSBI is basing its reporting to the World Bank Group stakeholders and the public at large on accurate and official information.

WSBI does however also wish to receive more granular information related to these two basic figures of total numbers of clients and total numbers of transaction accounts.This information is necessary for WSBI’s advocacy work in the area of financial access and financial inclusion in order to be able to provide detailed evidence to regulators and policy-makers as to the importance and efficiency of WSBI members in promoting financial access throughout the world.

This information has already been included in the UFA 2020 questionnaire that has been sent out to members and includes the following:

  • Disaggregated data on outreach indicators such as the total number of clients broken down by gender, the total number of clients in rural and urban areas, the total number of clients previously excluded from financial services, the total number of clients aged 15 years or more and the total number of clients below 15 years old
  • The total number and value of customer generated transactions, broken down by whether they were processed manually bya branch/teller/agent or electronically (ATM, POS, PC/internet banking, mobile enabled transactions,…)
  • Account usage and dormancy
  • Whether the member offers micro insurance products

Accordingly the members are kindly encouraged to make all efforts to adapt their data reporting systems in order to be able to capture and report on this information to WSBI going forward.

In terms of next steps, WSBI will identify and collate experience and best practices from members, which are showing particularly impressive results in contributing to the financial inclusion objective in their country. Thesewill be shared with other members that are not proving so successful in order to identify ways and means to improve their performance. Such exchanges and knowledge sharing are part of the DNA of WSBI. It is also recalled that WSBI has a longstanding track record in capacity building and has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the World Bank Group aimed at helping WSBI membersto accelerate their capacity in providing universal finance access in their countries.Further information on this activity is included in the WSBI Progress Report (Doc 519/16).

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