26 February 2010: It is estimated that only 30% or less of Pacific Islanders currently have access to basic financial services making it the least banked region in the world.

In late 2009, the governors of the five Pacific Islands with central banks passed a resolution at their annual meeting to form a subgroup on financial inclusion and AFI. Activities anticipated from the group include capacity building and policy development in mobile phone financial services and related issues including consumer protection and AML Know Your Customer requirements.

The first meeting of this ‘working group’ took place from 23-25 February 2010 during the South Pacific Central Bank Governors Meeting and the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme and was hosted by the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu.

The group’s discussions centered around how to extend financial services to the unbanked, including how to oversee new deposit taking services emerging in the microfinance community, and technologies such as mobile phone banking while protecting clients.

Governor of the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu, Odo Tevi, opened the meeting saying “The geographical set up of Vanuatu with 70-80% of the population living in rural areas gives us all the more reason to embrace the financial inclusion concept.” He further added that “we will learn from each other and provide leadership to ensure that our people have access to better financial services and are literate to exploit the opportunities.”