State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has launched 'Access to Finance (A2F) Survey 2015' results on Tuesday, in Karachi. Governor SBP Ashraf Mahmood Wathra while speaking at the launching ceremony said 'A2F is part of the National Financial Inclusion vision as it will serve dual purpose of gauging the impact of our financial inclusion initiatives since 2008, and providing baseline data for the National Financial Inclusion Strategy.'
While addressing Presidents/CEOs of banks and key stakeholders, Wathra shared that traditionally one of the key challenges to access to finance has been the lack of demand side information which was necessary for understanding the barriers to financial inclusion. "Without such information the market doesn't have the insights and capacity to develop client centric products and services."
He hoped the survey would help all the stakeholders in understanding knowledge, attitude and practices of a common Pakistani when it came to managing financial matters. On this occasion, André Oertel from Horus Development Finance also made a detailed presentation sharing the findings of the report. SBP initiated the Access to Finance (A2F) Survey 2015 to assess the state of financial access and usage in the country. This comprehensive country level study of more than 10,500 respondents was geared to measure and analyse the current and foreseeable demand for financial services in Pakistan. The A2F Survey 2015 results show that access to financial services has significantly increased in Pakistan since 2008, with 16 percent of the adult population now having access to a bank account (including mobile wallets), improving from 11 percent in 2008. Moreover, 23 percent of the adult population has access to formal financial services up from 12 percent in 2008. Furthermore, women have advanced remarkably in terms of financial inclusion as now 11 percent of women are utilising banking services, compared to only 4 percent recorded in 2008.
This second A2F Survey was carried out by Horus Development Finance, International consulting company together with local partner Gallup Pakistan. The first Access to Finance (A2F) Study was conducted in 2008 which yielded a rich database on all aspects of access to financial services and provided useful inputs for analysis, planning and implementation of various initiatives and programmes.-PR
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