'Digitization should not be a cause of financial exclusion.' This is one of the key messages that emerged during the Second Plenary Meeting of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), which took place on 24 and 25 June in virtual mode.
Under the Italian Presidency, Magda Bianco, Director General for Customer Protection and Financial Education at the Bank of Italy, and Anna Zelentsova, for the Russian Ministry of Finance, the two co-chairs of the GPFI, are directing the group's efforts to identify good practices that can help countries make the most of the opportunities that digitalization offers for financial inclusion.
The use of digital payments and financial services increased during the pandemic due to social distancing measures. As a result, many countries have adopted policies to support the individuals most affected by the pandemic, those most vulnerable, and micro and small enterprises. Specific protection measures and digital financial education programs have also been launched to accompany these changes. However, it seems clear that, while greater digitalization offers greater opportunities for inclusion, also for the benefit of those previously excluded, the pandemic has highlighted the structural weaknesses of some countries and the need for interventions aimed at avoiding new forms of exclusion of the poorest, the weakest, the most marginalized. It is precisely in this context that the activity of the GPFI fits: at the end of the year, the Italian Presidency will produce a menu of the best strategies activated by the various Member States of the G20 to protect individuals and enterprises that access financial services, especially new digital financial ones - and to raise their awareness of the opportunities offered by digital finance and the safeguards aimed at protecting them from the risks of frauds, scams and digital exclusion.
The first day of the meeting was dedicated to remittances from migrants, a topic that has received much attention from the G20 - and the GPFI - for some time. Important objectives have been achieved in this area, especially in reducing the average cost of transfers. However, it is necessary to continue to monitor the market at an international level to continue on a path of ever-greater efficiency. The offer conditions and service levels are not yet satisfactory, especially for some corridors and for some countries. These activities are even more critical if we consider that, despite the difficulties of the pandemic, the flows of remittances have remained substantially stable, confirming that they are a necessary and irreplaceable source of funding for recipient families in the poorest countries.
The second day of work was dedicated to discussing the first drafts of the reports prepared by GPFI implementing partners to support the objectives of the Italian Presidency. The reports analyze the impacts of the pandemic on the financial resilience of individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises, the new risks of exclusion, and those linked to cyber fraud due to the increased digitization of financial services and products. Based on the analysis, the reports highlight, on the one hand, which policies have been adopted by countries to mitigate the most adverse consequences of the pandemic and of digitization on financial inclusion and, on the other, in a longer-term perspective, what actions have been taken to increase financial literacy, especially digital literacy, and to provide greater protection for financial customers in the face of new digital risks.
