Early this month, the Financial Inclusion Data Working Group (FIDWG) met and determined five core indicators to measure access and usage of financial services.

The effort was spearheaded by a subcommittee of four working group members led by Rochelle Tomas of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

The goal of creating the core set was to encourage policymakers to collect, determine, and compare financial inclusion data giving them the ability to ascertain the breadth of financial inclusion in their home countries, then effectively compare their data to other countries.

The five indicators were chosen through working group deliberations that stressed the AFI model of peer-to-peer debate and collaboration. One of the selection criteria for the core indicators was flexibility, and the set also contains proxies in an attempt to make it feasible for all countries to use them to gather data. Another factor making them an ideal starting point is the fact that FIDWG members took into account the need to establish common understanding around terms and metrics, thus allowing for comparable and transparent data across national boundaries. Over the next six months, FIDWG members will test the implementation of the core set and report their findings and experiences at their next meeting at the AFI Global Policy Forum in Mexico this September.

The FIDWG will shortly invite all AFI member institutions to pilot the five indicators this year and submit their results to AFI for compilation in September for dissemination among all members at the annual meeting. The indicators and the explanatory background paper will be available to the network in the coming month.

The core set was agreed to at FIDWG’s third bi-annual meeting in Lima, Peru which was attended by 18 policy makers from nine different countries. Experts from CGAP and the Inter-American Development Bank were also invited and attended to contribute their ideas.

In other business, working group participants engaged with international expert Elisabeth Rhyne of the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION on consumer protection, suitability of financial products, and financial education – all of which concern financial inclusion quality. Pirajit Padmasuta of the Bank of Thailand engaged in a peer review of Mexico’s Financial Inclusion Report, and Ricardo Mourão of the Central Bank of Brazil did the same for Zambia’s Finscope survey report. FIDWG members were further able to learn about new data initiatives from their fellow regulators in Brazil, Peru and Malaysia from Emilio Franca, Giovanna Priale and Zarina Abd Rahman, respectively.

FIDWG focuses on measurement and data issues facing AFI member countries and the importance of “evidence-based policymaking.” Currently, the group has 15 member institutions. In the future, FIDWG will share the five core indicators with other international entities such as the G20 and APEC. The group also plans to expand this core set to create a range of indicators that specifically facilitate regulation and policymaking in the realm of financial inclusion.