Slide 1

Financial Inclusion of Master CardThe financial inclusion program of master card mainly depends on two factors.AccessAvailability of products/ Infrastructure. Adoption ( ownership) of products.( E.g. Bank Account)UsageIs this product usedDegree to which the product is used (E.g. share of consumers payments made with a payments product versus cash)

Adoption of products is an important first step for financial inclusion, but usage and the degree of usage are equally important.

In almost all of the emerging Asia Pacific countries ( Phillipines, Malayasia), payments product adoption exceeds adoption of other products. This suggests that payments are the optimal entry point for financial inclusion.Beyond payments, a countrys path depends on local factors. For example lending appears to follow long-term savings/investments in India where as in Malaysia it is Insurance.Bangladesh is providing savings product through MFIs. However, this savings product is a pseudo payments product, meaning that it is typically the only product people use to hold funds and make frequent cash withdrawals to make payments.

Condition of different Emerging MarketsChina and Malaysia fall under the Transitioning stage based on both adoption and usage and appear to be following the likely path in the financial inclusion progression. Adoption and usage of other products can begin to be emphasized where they are not catching up with payments (e.g., lending and insurance in China). Philippines falls under the Early Days stage based on adoption; however, based on usage, it moves forward to the Transitioning stage. The reason appears to be that Philippines has made better progress than its peers (based on adoption) in driving the usage of payments products for receiving inflows (e.g., salaries, remittances). A high penetration, trust, and engagement of banks by the middle class could be some reasons. Philippines should continue focusing on payments adoption and usage and closing the current gaps between them (especially by making more consumer purchases non-cash). It should also assess large current adoption usage gaps in other products (e.g., lending and insurance). Indonesia, Bangladesh, and India are in the initial stages of their financial inclusion progression. These countries must drive higher levels of payments adoption and usage with an initial focus on closing the large current adoption usage gaps. They should also assess large current adoption usage gaps in other products (e.g., long-term savings/investments in India).