13 to increase financial health, only 33 percent are secure despite the fact that 93 percent have an account. THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FINANCIAL INCLUSION AGENDA So, does this mean we should give up on financial inclusion? No. This research is a point-in-time assessment and would benefit from being repeated across a wider set of countries and over a longer period, to see how trends in account ownership and financial control and security relate. In addition, account ownership does seem to make clients happy—in response to the survey’s question, “Overall, do you think that using the services of a bank or other financial institution improves your life?” most account owners (bank and mobile) responded positively. That might mean that they appreciate saving time by avoiding queuing to pay simple bills, or by sending or receiving money quickly to and from loved ones. But though these benefits can be useful, they are not the ultimate goal of financial inclusion. Worse, these findings could also mean that it’s easier to borrow or spend for frivolous things or to lay bets on sports games, which would likely do little to increase feelings of control, and would certainly not boost financial security. Further, financial inclusion has always been an overly simplistic term. Virtually all definitions of financial inclusion stress the importance of low-income people using a full suite of financial tools that enable them to manage daily cash flows, save and plan for the short and long term, take advantage of opportunities, and protect against risk. Inclusion and account ownership are just the tip of the spear and perhaps have been too much the focus in the field to date. The balancing act in this field has always been between two related goals. On the one hand, there’s the need to identifythemostefficientwaytoreachthelargestpossible number of low-income people. And on the other hand, there’s the need to make those products as useful and custom-tailored as possible, enabling clients to grow their businesses, improve their ability to send their children to school, obtain timely medical care, or otherwise respond effectively to their individual life circumstances. Although much necessary work has been done to walk back the previous over-hyping of microcredit as a silver Figure 1: Account Ownership and Perceived Financial Control