The amount of electronic data generated by computerization—digital data—is growing at unprecedented rates. Financial services are an information business—can this growing wealth of data be harnessed to advance financial inclusion?

This report follows up on a 2012 CGAP Financial Inclusion Landscaping study in Russia on the need for comprehensive and detailed data on financial inclusion—and exclusion—in Russia.

Financial Access 2011 provides an overview of data sources and discusses select methodological supply-side data issues. It includes a discussion with leading experts on financial inclusion data.

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.