Payment Aspects of Financial Inclusion in the Fintech Era

Technological innovation has made major inroads into financial services, especially payments. The pace of innovation has substantially increased in the past five years, leading to the “era of fintech”. Fintech presents both opportunities and challenges for financial access and inclusion. It can support improved access to safe transaction accounts and encourage their frequent use. However, it is not a panacea and there are risks that need to be managed.

This report from BIS, reiterates and enhances the guidance developed in the report on Payment aspects of financial inclusion (PAFI) issued by the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures and the World Bank Group in 2016. Since then, the PAFI framework has been adopted as the analytical underpinning for designing and implementing country-level actions and global efforts to improve access to and usage of transaction accounts.