The International Monetary Fund has unveiled an online database that would provide the public with comprehensive access to financial acess indicators.
“Access to financial services is widely recognized as an important factor in economic development,” said Adelheid Burgi-Schmelz, who heads IMF’s statistics department. “This database will help researchers and policy-makers by broadening our understanding of the reach and impact of basic financial services provision around the world. As we add survey results year by year, the database will become an increasingly useful tool for everyone working in this field.”
The electronic databank was created through the Access to Finance Project, with the assistance of the government of Netherlands. It contains key indicators of geographic and demographic coverage of financial services, which is determined by bank branch network, availability of automated teller machines, and key financial instruments such as deposits, loans, debt securities and insurance.
