A measure of an Equity Adjusted Coverage Rate (EACR) in bank account usage informs on the coverage of bank account use with an adjustment on the equity of coverage. Using the FINDEX database, 57.6 percent of individuals (aged 15+) in Turkey had a bank account (coverage rate) in 2011. However, when adjusted for equity, the EACR rate is 44.0 percent. Ranked against all countries, Turkey ranks in the top half of countries in terms of bank account use coverage (See Figure 22 for graph of all 145 countries in the FINDEX database). In 2014, Turkey’s coverage rate decreases slightly but the EACR actually increases to 48.3 because of the falling level of dissimilarity. On the other hand three of the four benchmark countries experience significance increases in their coverage rates and substantial falls in their dissimilarity scores. Countries such as Belarus and Brazil are able to make significant advances in three years and move higher than Turkey in terms of their EACR rates in bank account ownership.

Compared to countries with a similar coverage of bank account usage, Turkey has a higher dissimilarity index (Figure 8) in 2011. The dissimilarity index can be interpreted as the difference in bank account coverage rates across groups. For example, if the bank account coverage rate is equal across age, gender, education, and income groups, then the dissimilarity index would be equal to zero. The dissimilarity index shows that in 2011, there is a higher level of inequality in economic opportunity in Turkey compared to benchmark countries in terms of bank account ownership across age, gender, education, and income groups. Between 2011 and 2014, Turkey is able to make a significant improvement in its dissimilarity index indicating that the inequality in bank account ownership is decreasing in turkey even if the overall level of ownership slightly decreases.

Turkey’s dissimilarity in account ownership is driven by gender (Figure 8). A Shapley decomposition measures which factors contributes to the dissimilarity index in Bank Account ownership. The Shapley decomposition is calculated for Turkey and countries with similar coverage in Bank Account Ownership. For example in 2011, the coverage in Turkey is 57.6 and in Brazil it is 55.9. However, the level of dissimilarity, and what accounts for the dissimilarity is very different between the two countries. Turkey’s dissimilarity is 8 percentage points higher than Italy at 23.7 which also results in a lower equity adjusted coverage rate for bank account ownership in Turkey. Moreover, 58.4 percent of dissimilarity is due to gender in Turkey, compared to only 8.8 percent in Italy. In Italy, the main sources of inequality are age and income.

Turkey was able to substantially decrease the impact of gender on its dissimilarity of bank account usage. Contribution of gender on the d-index fell from 58.4 to 39.4 over the three years. The overall decrease in the level of dissimilarity was mainly driven by this improvement in the gender component as the absolute contribution of gender on dissimilarity fell from 13.8 in 2011 to 5.7 in 2014. However, Gender continues to be the largest source of dissimilarity, suggesting that the continuation of this positive trend in gender equity is crucial in increasing the EACR of Turkey further in terms of bank account ownership.

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