Summit on financial inclusion set

ABOUT 500 representatives from government agencies, financial services firms, microfinance institutions, non-profit organizations, technology providers and other stakeholders will gather in Manila this week for a brainstorming aimed at accelerating financial inclusion in the Asia Pacific region.

The inaugural Asia Pacific Financial Inclusion Summit, to be held at the Makati Shangril-La in Makati from Oct. 27 to 29 is organized by the Citi Foundation, The Foundation for Development Cooperation (FDC) and the Financial Times, in partnership with the Banking With The Poor Network. It is supported by host partner Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The summit is a consolidation of two lead- ing fora in the Asia Pacific region—the Citi-FT Financial Education Summit and the Asia Microfinance Forum. The new platform seeks to serve as a catalyst for debate, knowledge and best practices sharing, and the formation of partnerships among practitioners, policymakers and stakeholders to deliver impact and achieve scale in financial inclusion that will drive economic progress in the region.

More than 75 thought leaders and industry experts will tackle challenges and opportunities in the area of inclusive finance, including how the private sector can play an important role in delivering financial inclusion goals and boosting sustainable development, innovative use of digital technology to reach the unbanked, enabling regulatory environment and national financial inclusion strategies, scaling of microfinance institutions for greater impact, and new delivery models of financial education.

The speakers include representatives from the Asian Development Bank, United Nations Capital Development Fund, Better than Cash Alliance, ACCION, CGAP, Women’s World Banking, BRAC, Grameen Capital India and Micro Save, as well as regulators from Indonesia, India and the Philippines.

“By combining the region’s leading financial education and microfinance forums, we are bringing various stakeholders from the inclusive finance ecosystem together on a common platform to drive interactive discussion and promote synergy of initiatives. We are confident that this integration and exchange of views, knowledge, and best practices will contribute to progressing the financial inclusion agenda in the region,” said Regina Seow, Citi Asia Pacific head of corporate citizenship.