IMF Working Papers

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Kazuko Shirono, Berhe Beyene, Fozan Fareed, Christiaan Loots, Andrea Quevedo, and Kameshnee Naidoo. Understanding Barriers to Financial Access: Insights from Bank Pricing Data, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2024) accessed November 12, 2024

Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

Greater availability of financial access related data in recent years is increasingly enabling policymakers to better track and monitor financial access trends and developments. However, data on barriers to financial access, including costs associated with using financial services—a key factor of financial exclusion—remain scarce. To gain insight into the costs of financial access faced by the low-income segments of population, this paper presents an analysis of a novel dataset on bank pricing containing information on fees and charges associated with various banking services—collected as part of the United Nations Capital Development Fund’s (UNCDF) Making Access Possible (MAP) program—based on a market research approach for 34 low- and middle-income countries in the ASEAN, SADC, and WAEMU regions. The results of our affordability analysis reveal that the costs of maintaining a bank checking account and conducting a few basic transactions can exceed 5 percent of monthly income for consumers in more than 10 percent of the countries in the sample, mainly in the WAEMU and SADC regions. These findings underscore the considerable challenge of affordability as a significant barrier to access to financial services, especially for low-income households and SMEs. The analysis also highlights the need to collect more granular data on the affordability aspect of financial access to facilitate more effective policymaking.

Subject: Economic sectors, Financial inclusion, Financial markets, Financial services, Income, Mobile banking, National accounts, Small and medium enterprises, Technology

Keywords: Affordability, Africa, Bank checking account, Bank pricing, Bank pricing datum, Banking product, Cost of banking services, Financial access, Financial inclusion, Income, Mobile banking, Small and medium enterprises, Small business bank products usage

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    36

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 2024/150

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA2024150

  • ISBN:

    9798400280627

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941