The expansion of digital financial services is one of the most promising ways to increase financial inclusion. The development and expansion of new technologies, especially mobile technologies, that cover and effectively reach all economic levels in society now provide opportunities to both provide greater financial inclusion and expand economic growth of micro and small businesses.
Technical accessibility has led to the rapid expansion of new payment instruments such as e-money and mobile payments. The countries with the most dramatic changes have been those that previously had high levels of financial exclusion and lack of banking and financial institutional infrastructure especially in African and Southeast Asia. Digital financial services have the potential to be used beyond the area of payment transactions and the next step in the digital financial services development is greater interoperability and interconnectivity with financial institutions and enhanced access to credit, savings and other services such as insurance.
Studying and learning from the experiences, especially legislative and regulatory practices in several countries, which have successfully launched new digital financial service approaches, is essential for countries like Russia to explore and provide greater financial inclusion and help to promote more rapid economic growth. These topics will the main focus during the Digital Financial Services: Promoting Financial Inclusion workshop that will take place at the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on 9 October 2014.