The annual Financial Access report aspires to include data on an increasing number of financial service providers. Financial Access 2012 builds on the work done in Financial Access 2009 and Financial Access 2010 to provide new data on financial access.
Financial Access 2012 shows a clear—albeit nascent—recovery from the financial crisis, with growth rates of both deposit and loan penetration picking up. The world as a whole had 47 ATMs and 17 commercial bank branches per 100,000 adults in 2011.
There is increasing recognition that poor people need access to a suite of varied financial services. In this context, there is increasing talk about insurance as an important financial service to help people mitigate, manage risks and protect assets.
