A Global Push for Youth Financial Inclusion Gains Steam—and Some Big Backers

Friday, September 30, 2016

From 2011 to 2014 around 700 million people around the world opened accounts at some type of financial institution or service provider. The result was a 20 percent decrease in number of unbanked individuals in the world. While an increase of 700 million people is significant, two billion adults worldwide still lack access to financial accounts and services.

One way to attack this problem over time is to start early, getting young people oriented to opening bank accounts and saving money. But it will require some serious work. According to the U.N., young people are 44 percent less likely to park their savings in a formal financial institutions as compared to adults. The bulk of the world’s unbanked population live in low-income countries and developing economies. And nearly 90 percent of the global youth population live in poor countries as well.

The global dialogue about the importance of bringing children and young people in financial inclusion landscape has grown over the past few years. In 2011, a group of like-minded individuals and organizations got together to take the lead in the movement to form Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI).

Source: Inside Philanthropy (link opens in a new window)

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financial inclusion, philanthropy