Financial inclusion providing access to financial services for all has gained prominence in the past few years as a policy objective for national policymakers, multilateral institutions, and others in the development field. The United Nations designated 2005 the International Year of Microcredit, adopting the goal of building inclusive financial systems. To assist policymakers in designing effective policies and tracking global progress in financial inclusion, the World Bank collected the first set of indicators of financial access in countries around the world in 20052 and updated these indicators for selected countries in 2008. Building on this work, Financial Access 2009 introduces new data from a survey of financial regulators in 139 countries. It presents indicators of access to savings, credit, and payment services in banks and in regulated nonbank financial institutions reviewing some policy initiatives that support financial inclusion. As the first in an annual series documenting access to financial services around the world, it is intended for a broad audience of policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and multilateral and bilateral investors.

To guide monetary policy and monitor systemic risks, financial regulators in all countries collect information on the values of deposits and credit. But the Financial Access Survey indicates that fewer than 70 percent of countries collect information on the number of bank deposit accounts. And even fewer countries have information on regulated nonbank institutions—only 30 percent of countries could provide information on the number of deposit accounts in cooperatives, specialized state financial institutions, and microfinance institutions. Data on the number of loans are even more limited.