The 2014 edition of the Global Findex database provides more than 100 indicators for 143 economies around the world.<sup>13</sup> As in the first edition, indicators are constructed with survey data from interviews with nationally representative and randomly selected adults age 15 and above—about 150,000 people surveyed in those 143 economies during the 2014 calendar year.

# Account ownership increasing, but with persistent gaps

The Global Findex database reveals that between 2011 and 2014, 700 million adults worldwide became account holders. The number of adults without an account—the unbanked—dropped by 20 percent to 2 billion.

Globally, 62 percent of adults reported having an account in 2014, up from 51 percent in 2011. The share of adults with an account increased in nearly every economy. Not surprisingly, however, the extent of account ownership continues to vary widely around the world. In high-income OECD economies account ownership is almost universal: 94 percent of adults reported having an account in 2014. In developing economies only 54 percent did. There are also enormous disparities among developing regions, where account penetration ranges from 14 percent in the Middle East to 69 percent in East Asia and the Pacific.

The 2014 Global Findex database defines account ownership as having an account either at a financial institution or through a mobile money provider.<sup>14</sup> The first category includes accounts at a bank or another type of financial institution, such as a credit union, cooperative, or microfinance institution. The second consists of mobile phone–based services used to pay bills or to send or receive money. The definition of a mobile money account is limited to services that can be used without an account at a financial institution. Adults using a mobile money account linked to their financial institution are considered to have an account at a financial institution.

Globally, nearly all adults who reported owning an account in 2014 said that they have an account at a financial institution: 60 percent of adults reported having a financial institution account only, 1 percent having both a financial institution account and a mobile money account, and 1 percent a mobile money account only. But while only 2 percent of adults worldwide have a mobile money account, in Sub-Saharan Africa 12 percent do—half of them a mobile money account only. All 13 countries around the world where the share of adults with a mobile money account is 10 percent or more are in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 5 of these 13 countries—Côte d’Ivoire, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe—more adults reported having a mobile money account than an account at a financial institution.

The 2014 Global Findex database shows great progress in expanding financial inclusion around the world. But large gaps remain. Many people around the world, particularly women and poorer adults, still do not have an account. Among adults in the poorest 40 percent of households within individual developing economies, the share without an account fell by 17 percentage points on average between 2011 and 2014—yet more than half (54 percent) remain unbanked. Among adults in the richest 60 percent of households, by contrast, 40 percent are unbanked.

> THE GLOBAL FINDEX DATABASE 4