Gemma Haines: Today I'm joined by Rebecca Bryant from the Department of Foreign Affairs
and Trade in Canberra.
Rebecca is the co-chair of the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion which was officially
launched by the G20 in September 2010.
Interviewer: Rebecca, thanks for your time today.
Ms Bryant: Hi Gemma, it's good to be here.
Interviewer: What is the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion and why is Australia
involved in it?
Ms Bryant: So, the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion was created in 2010 as
you've said.
It's designed to address the fact that 2.5 billion people are still unable to access
formal financial services.
What this means is that poor people can't save, they can't get access to money to undertake
entrepreneurial activity, they can't get insurance in the event that natural disasters ruin their
crops.
So it is a significant factor in ensuring that they stay poor.
Leaders recognized this in 2009 and they asked a range of financial inclusion experts from
around the world to come together to talk about ways that the G20 could address this
issue.
In 2010 the work of that group led to the creation of the Global Partnership for Financial
Inclusion.
Australia's involved because this is a significant issue for poor people and we care about that.
We know from our own experience that the more people that can access formal banking services
the better off they are.
So we have been working with the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion from its beginning
to ensure we have access to better data, about who is accessing financial services and who
is not.
That we can ensure that we have that small and medium size business can access the finance
they need to expand their businesses and grow.
And so that we can address key regulatory issues that prevent poor people from accessing
the services they need.
Interviewer: How does the GPFI work towards the G20's overall goal of promoting growth?
Ms Bryant: Essentially, in order to ensure that we have a well-functioning financial
system we have to ensure that as many people as possible around the world are able to participate
in it.
And if 2.5 billion people can't access formal banking services it's a real problem.
So it has to be a goal of the G20 to ensure greater participation and involvement in the
global economy, so that's the first reason.
The other reason is that without these services poor people have very limited chances of stepping
out of their circumstances, of becoming more than they currently are, and so you know if
we can help them access banking services that can enable them to establish businesses, to
protect themselves against natural disaster, then we can help them to contribute to their
economy which in turn can contribute to a better functioning financial system - so it
is a key issue.
Interviewer: What are Australia's priorities for the GPFI in 2014?
Ms Bryant: Essentially, we are wanting the GPFI to get back to its roots.
When it was established it was called Financial Inclusion Through Innovation.
So really it acknowledged that the world is changing.
That poor people can now access financial services in different ways to how they could
before.
Some people, particularly in Africa, are accessing services purely through mobile phones.
So we want the GPFI to really come back to that starting point because we feel that in
the last couple of years its stepped away as it worked on some of the fundamentals.
So we want to start looking more closely at the emerging technologies and ensure that
poor people can access the services that they need to access through a range of technologies
that are now available to them.
Mobile phones is one, payment services through agents, such as kiosks is another.
That is one thing that we achieve.
We also want to come back to look at how women are accessing services.
When microfinance started up many years ago, women were very strongly involved in that.
When women can access finance they can grow their circumstances and step out of poverty.
We know that from past experience.
And, the GPFI to look more closely as to how women can benefit from the G20's focus on
this issue.
We'd also like to strengthen the GPFI's core structure and ensure that it's ready and able
to take on new challenges.
And one of the new challenges is remittance payments.
The cost of remittance payments is not coming down as we expected it to, as competition
in the market has increased.
So poor people, when they go to make a payment, are paying large fees and we want to know
why and we want to see if we can find a way to bring those costs down.
Interviewer: Rebecca, thank you for your time today.
Ms Bryant: No worries, thanks Gemma.
Interviewer: And that was Rebecca Bryant, co-chair of the Global Partnership for Financial
Inclusion.