A nation at the crossroads of financial inclusion policy?

This week saw AFI reach its 111th member institution and 92nd country with the addition of the Undersecretariat of Treasury of the Republic of Turkey.

Long recognized as a cultural and historical gateway between Asia and Europe, Turkey also represents an economic crossroads, bridging the challenges and opportunities of the developing and emerging economies with those of the developed world. In the field of financial inclusion, Turkey offers an insight into the possible future direction of policy where lessons from both the developed and developing world can be brought together for the benefit of the unbanked in every region and every nation. Turkey has already been sharing its financial inclusion strategy experiences through G-20 Peer Learning Program implemented in collaboration with AFI.

Turkey is a candidate country for European Union (EU) membership. It has the world’s 16th largest GDP and is among the founding members of the OECD and the G-20 major economies. Turkey will also assume the presidency of the G-20 in 2015. The nation’s population is well connected with mobile and smartphone penetration close to that of major EU nations, and for those with a bank account, 89 percent are using some form of mobile banking.

However, according to the World Bank Global Findex 2011 survey, approximately 60 percent of the adult population possess a bank account at a formal institution in Turkey. In order to address financial inclusion access and quality challenges that are shared by the rest of the AFI Network, Turkey is about to finalize its Financial Inclusion Strategy which integrates financial access, financial education and financial consumer protection dimensions.

The benefits of AFI’s knowledge sharing approach to financial inclusion are complemented by Turkey’s own commitment to international economic cooperation efforts. As Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Financial Affairs Mr. Ali Babacan (pictured right) highlighted in a recent speech at the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings, “International economic policy coordination is needed now more than ever as the challenge before us is to find solutions for strengthening growth and job creation, and safeguarding economic fundamentals in our economies.”

AFI welcomes Turkey’s membership and looks forward to the Undersecretariat of Treasury’s valuable contribution to the Network’s global financial inclusion peer learning efforts.