This book is concerned with the increasingly important and problematic area of financial inclusion. Financial inclusion is defined as the process of ensuring access to financial services and timely and adequate credit where needed by vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low income groups at affordable cost. There is a growing concern even in the developed economies that while liberalisation improves financial products and services for the few, it simultaneously accentuates denial of services for others. There is a huge unmet demand for financial services. The poor are left with no alternative but to rely on informal credit providers and access finance at higher rates. Even when banking services are available, the high cost of accessing these services makes them prohibitive for the poor. Also, non-price barriers such as proof of identity are very difficult to surmount for shifting or migratory population.

This book shows how financial inclusion is viewed as a policy priority even in developed countries. The author provides interesting illustrations of international experience among others about the Financial Inclusion Task Force of the United Kingdom and the Community Reinvestment Act of the United States. In France, there is a law on exclusion of 1998 which emphasises the mandatory right to a bank account. In South Africa a low cost bank account “Msanzi” has been launched for the financially excluded. In India, initiatives for financial inclusion have come from the government and the RBI at the level of macro policy and have been translated into initiatives by banks.