Financial inclusion is usually presented as an unquestionable good. More people with access to bank accounts, credit and digital payments should mean more opportunity, greater resilience and stronger economic development.
But the reality is more complicated.
In this episode from the Emerging Markets Today archive, I speak with Emmanuel Daniel, founder of The Asian Banker, about financial inclusion, the evolution of banking and the assumptions behind efforts to bring more people into the formal financial system.
We discuss where financial inclusion has genuinely improved people’s lives, but also where access to financial products can create new risks. The conversation looks at credit, banking infrastructure, technology and the changing role of financial institutions across emerging markets.
Emmanuel also challenges some of the conventional thinking around inclusion, including whether access alone is a useful measure of progress and what happens when financial products are introduced without considering how people actually use them.
Originally published in 2023, this conversation still raises important questions about what meaningful financial inclusion looks like, how technology is reshaping access to money and whether bringing more people into the financial system always produces better outcomes.
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