Karen Giral, 20, works at her booth selling Avon products at a Grameen America open house at St. John's University in New York April 18, 2009. Originally begun in Bangladesh, the nonprofit microfinance organization has 600 borrowers in Queens, all wo
Karen Giral, 20, works at her booth selling Avon products at a Grameen America open house at St. John's University in New York April 18, 2009. Originally begun in Bangladesh, the nonprofit microfinance organization has 600 borrowers in Queens, all women, with average loans of $2,200 with a repayment rate of 99.6 percent. Reuters/Stringer

The Philippines is hosting the inaugural Asia-Pacific Financial Inclusion Summit from Oct. 27-29 to augment financial inclusion in the Asia Pacific region. It is being held at the Makati Shangri-La in Manila.

Organised by the Citi Foundation, the Foundation for Development Cooperation and the Financial Times, the summit has partners in the “Banking With The Poor” network and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), reports Manila Bulletin.

Around 500 delegates representing government agencies, financial services firms, microfinance institutions, non-profit organisations, technology providers are attending the event.

“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, Asia Pacific Head of Corporate Citizenship, Citi.

Agenda

The summit converges two leading forums -- the Citi-FT Financial Education Summit and the Asia Microfinance Forum and is seeking to be a catalyst for debate, knowledge and sharing of best practices among practitioners, policy-makers and stakeholders to achieve scale in financial inclusion.

The summit will be addressed by speakers from the Asian Development Bank, United Nations Capital Development Fund, Women’s World Banking, BRAC, Grameen Capital India, and MicroSave besides regulators from Indonesia, India and the Philippines.

“The Summit is an ideal opportunity for business, government and community stakeholders from across Asia to share and examine new business models, technology solutions and delivery channels aimed at reducing poverty and hastening inclusive finance and economic growth,” noted Stephen Taylor, Executive Governor, FDC.

Tackling poverty

Financial inclusion stands for economic justice and is the most powerful tool in fighting poverty. Despite financial institutions rendering services to millions of people, the Asia-Pacific region still has 1.2 billion people with no access to bank account or formal financial services. Therefore, creation of inclusive financial systems is critical in the region to ensure the social and economic progress of the underprivileged.

With a new focus on access to finance, income generation, and tools of saving, inclusive finance ecosystem is making strides. Many microfinance institutions and NGOs are trying out innovations such as digital remittances, use of online platforms, value-chain finance and payments systems, says a blog by financialinclusion.org.

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