Technology can expand access to finance

At a time when technology-driven microfinance services have become a key strategy to achieve financial inclusion, more efforts to improve the financial infrastructure are needed, experts say.

"Providing microfinance services using digital technology is quite effective in promoting financial inclusion when many still have no basic access to financial services," said Yi Gang, vice-governor of China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, at a high-level forum held in Beijing last month.

According to a research by the World Bank, 2 billion working-age adults worldwide, around 38 percent of the global population, have no bank accounts and are excluded from the mainstream financial system.