barriers to access should be classified into _price_ barriers (service is available but too expensive), _information_ barriers (e.g. poor household’s creditworthiness cannot easily be established) and _product and service design_ (banks fail to offer the kind of services that would be most useul for poor households). Data on these aspects would be both essential for research purposes and a natural frame for the purpose of national summary statistics on barriers. Behind each of these barriers may be technological, regulatory or market factors (such as lack of competition).

_Price barriers:_ Evidently the all-in cost of accessing any service is an important determinant of the degree to which the service will be used. This will include both the price charged by the service provider and the additional costs incurred by the household in accessing this service. For the price charged by the service provider, technical efficiency, regulatory and tax factors and competition (or lack of it) are all relevant drivers. For the additional costs incurred by the household, cost and availability of transport and communications infrastructure, given branch location, will be relevant.

_Information barriers_ : An extensive literature on credit rationing due to adverse selection points to the importance of information aspects. Evidently these can effect the cost of credit or even make it unprofitable to extend credit to certain groups at any price. A range of policies is available to alleviate this whether by improving information or reducing the need for it. For example, the establishment of an improved credit information infrastructure can be eased by enabling laws and by steps to overcome the collective action problems that are often involved. Improved procedures and laws relating to secured lending, leasing and factoring help overcome information gaps by reducing the need for information. (Of course, information gaps are not external to the system, but can also be affected by behavior of market participants, for example, through improved financial product design.) _Product and service design barriers_ : Surveys often reveal that the products and services offered by financial intermediaries are not well-adapted to the needs of poor people. This can apply even in respect of specialized microfinance institutions, for example if they insist on group lending mechanisms in areas where this does not fit comfortably with social norms. The repayment terms of loans may not reflect borrowers’ cash flow patterns. For example a coffee farmer may need credit with balloon payment structure reflecting the cash-flow inherent in that crop. Likewise, the need for daily vendors to have daily loans and repayment systems may not be recognized. Or again MFIs may neglect the need to provide a door-to-door savings collection mechanism in areas where women do not readily leave their houses. More generally inaccessibility of branch locations is a widespread problem in rural areas. (In some of these cases, it is hard to see

> (i) access exclusion: e.g. through risk screening;

> (ii) condition exclusion: product design inappropriate for the needs of some people;

> (iii) price exclusion: financial products too costly;

> (iv) marketing exclusion: with some people effectively excluded by targeting marketing and sales;

> (v) self-exclusion: some persons not applying in the belief that they would be refused.

For an alternative classification of access barriers, see the discussion of the Southern Africa studies below.

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