IMF Releases the 2022 Financial Access Survey Results

IMF News, October 5, 2022

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The Financial Access Survey (FAS) presents 2021 data and highlights a continued expansion in the use of digital financial services—"considerably higher than pre-pandemic levels."
The value of mobile money transactions in low-income countries grew from about 40 percent of GDP to 70 percent of GDP between 2019 to 2021.
The value of mobile and internet banking transactions in middle-income countries increased from 225 percent of GDP to 324 percent of GDP between 2019 to 2021.
Microfinance institutions played an important role in some economies promoting inclusion of unserved and underserved populations, including by channeling pandemic support.

The pandemic prompted a transition from traditional financial access points (bank branches and ATMs) to mobile agents and retail agent outlets in some developing economies since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Note: "The chart shows the weighted average of four types of financial access points by country income group for countries whose data are available for 2019-2021. Country coverage differs across the types of financial access points."
Traditional financial services remain important: the share of depositors continued to grow in all country income groups.
Aggregate values of outstanding loans and deposits as a share of GDP were mostly unchanged between 2020 and 2021 for all country income groups, although outstanding loans declined slightly in middle- and high-income countries in 2021.

More than 70 percent of the economies which submitted SME data to the FAS in this round experienced a decline in outstanding commercial bank loans to SMEs in 2021.
This represented a reversal from the 2020 trend, where SME loans remained stable or even increased in many economies.
At least partly, the decline in SME loans appears to be due to the unwinding of policy measures adopted in response to the pandemic such as loan assistance and wage subsidies.

The gender gap in financial access persisted in many economies in 2021.
In 2020, outstanding deposits increased for both men and women; the increase was reversed in 2021, likely due to the end of pandemic-related policy measures to support financial access.
The decline in deposits was greater for women than for men in 45 percent of the economies that reported gender disaggregated data.
The number of deposit accounts stayed broadly stable or even increased in some countries for both genders in 2021.
Policy implication: these findings reinforce the need for continued collection and monitoring of gender disaggregated data on financial access.

The FAS is a supply-side database on access to and use of financial services, including digital financial services and gender-disaggregated data.
Coverage: 189 economies, with 121 data series and historical data from 2004.
The 2022 FAS was made possible with support of the Data for Decisions (D4D) Fund.

IMF Communications Department — Press Release No. 22/332 (October 5, 2022).