Stepping up inclusive finance

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has just launched the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI), a government action plan that aims to enhance cooperation between ministries, government agencies and the private sector to improve people’s access to financial services.

The overall vision of the NFSI is to have a financial system that is “accessible and responsive to the needs of the entire population toward broad-based and inclusive growth, particularly to ensure that it serves traditionally unserved and marginalized sectors of the population.” In effect, the low-income segment of society would shy away from informal options that make them even more vulnerable to financial stress, debt and poverty.