Description:
This paper introduces a new set of
financial access indicators for 139 countries across the
globe and describes the results of a preliminary analysis of
this data set. The new data set builds on previous work
using a similar methodology. The new data set features
broader country coverage and greater disaggregation by type
of financial product and by type of institution supplying
the product -- commercial banks, specialized state run
savings and development banks, banks with mutual ownership
structure (such as cooperatives), and microfinance
institutions. The authors use the data set to conduct a
rough estimation of the number of bank accounts in the world
(6.2 billion) as well as the number of banked and unbanked
individuals. In developed countries, they estimate 3.2
accounts per adult and 81 percent of adults banked. By
contrast, in developing countries, they estimate only 0.9
accounts per adult and 28 percent banked. In regression
analysis, they find that measures of development and
physical infrastructure are positively associated with the
indicators of deposit account, loan, and branch penetration.