100m Pakistanis without a bank account, says World Bank

Monday, April 23, 2018

By Amin Ahmed

Pakistan is home to 100 million adults without a bank account, with 13 per cent adults citing religious concerns as a reason for not having account at a financial institution, a World Bank report on the use of financial services revealed.

The ‘Global Findex Database’ said high costs turned out to be at least as important as religious concerns in each of the economies — cited by 21pc in Pakistan and 19pc in Turkey. And the share who reported religious concerns as their sole reason for not having an account was minuscule — 2pc in Pakistan and 1pc in Turkey.

As a whole in South Asia, the share of adults without an account rose by 23pc, to 70pc. Globally, about 1.7 billion adults remain unbanked — without an account at a financial institution or through a mobile money provider – compared to 2bn in 2014.

Since account ownership is nearly universal in high-income economies, virtually all unbanked adults live in developing economies. China and India, despite having relatively high account ownership claim large shares of the global unbanked population due to their sheer size.

Photo courtesy of Market Development Facility.

Source: Dawn (link opens in a new window)

Tags
financial inclusion