While the industry has been promoting the importance of electronic payments to economic growth around the world for a number of years, a new World Bank research report published by the World Bank Development Research Group in conjunction with the Better than Cash Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, enshrines this concept.
The new report details how governments should increase efforts to boost the use of digital payments in developing countries to increase financial inclusion, empower women and spur economic growth. In addition, the new report will be discussed at the upcoming G20 (a meeting of leaders from the world’s 20 largest economies) meeting next month in Perth, Australia. The report and its authors and supporters will call on leaders at the G20 summit to push for specific measures to spur electronic payment growth.
“The evidence shows that private sector firms will innovate and citizens will quickly learn to use and appreciate digital payments. But we need governments to establish the vision, the digital platforms and the regulatory assurance to pull the hundreds of millions of currently excluded people into full participation in the modern economy,” said Geoffrey Lamb, chief economic and policy advisor to co-chairs and CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
While the publication of the new report provides little new data to the industry, it will benefit the industry by providing information from a non-biased third party (the World Bank) that should encourage increased use of electronic payments or at the minimum, foster new economic and political policies that will aim to boost the use of electronic payments among unbanked and underbanked consumers who currently have little access to these instruments.
Overview by Tristan Hugo-Webb, Associate Director, International Advisory Services
To read the full story, go to the World Bank.
http://betterthancash.org/