22 April 2010: On the occasion of the 2010 World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings the G24 Secretariat and AFI will host a roundtable for attending developing country policymakers to discuss the current status of the G20 Financial Inclusion Experts Group (FIEG) – Access Through Innovation Sub-Group (AITSG) and the AFI survey on financial inclusion policy in developing countries.

The meeting aims to provide AFI members and other developing country policymakers with a platform for exchange of knowledge on key issues and trends related to financial inclusion initiatives and solutions. This marks the 2nd G24/AFI annual meeting – the first having taken place around the 2008 World Bank/IMF Spring gathering , where AFI was first informally launched.

The roundtable will open with welcoming remarks from AFI Steering Committee Chair and Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Professor Njuguna S. Ndung’u and an address by Luis Gustavo Mansur Siquiera, Deputy Head of the Department of International Affairs, Banco Central do Brasil on ‘Leadership and experiences of developing countries inputting into the future of financial inclusion policy’. Participants will then to hear from the co-chairs of G20 sub-groups working on two different aspects of financial inclusion: access through innovation (co-chaired by Australia and Brazil) and on SME finance (co-chaired by Germany and South Africa). AFI Executive Director, Alfred Hannig, will give an update on initial findings from a survey AFI has carried out on financial inclusion policy in developing countries. The meeting will culminate in a discussion among participants, facilitated by the Director of the G24 Secretariat, Amar Bhattacharya, to gain structured feedback on the G20 initiative and reactions to the AFI survey findings.