Of course, the choice of how to send a remittance payment is a function of both the sender’s access to a payment channel and the recipient’s. Even if remittance senders have an account and would prefer to make the remittance payment through their account or another digital option, they may choose to make the payment in cash if the family member or friend who is to receive it lacks ready access to an account or cash-out point—perhaps because the nearest bank branch, mobile money agent, or money transfer operator’s counter is too far away.

# Account holders’ use of digital payments

FIGURE 2.13 <!-- Start of picture text --> Use of accounts for digital payments<br><!-- End of picture text --> Adults with an account by its use for payments in the past year (as % of all adults), 2014 Globally, 83 percent of adults reported having made or received at least one of the 94 seven types of payments discussed in this 78 chapter in the past 12 months. Less than 69 half of them—36 percent of all adults—re51 51 ported using an account to make or receive 46 payments (figure 2.13). And among those 35 37 32 who have an account, 58 percent reported 14 using their account for this purpose. As would be expected, the share of account 5 East Asia Europe High-income Latin Middle South holders who reported doing so varies widely & Pacific & Central OECD America & East Asia across regions—from 83 percent in highAsia economies Caribbean _Source:_ Global Findex database. income OECD economies to 27 percent in South Asia. Aside from high-income OECD economies, Europe and Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa also had a high share of account holders—about 70 percent—reporting the use of their account for at least one of the types of payments.

<!-- Start of picture text --> 94 No payments<br>Received payments only<br>78 Made and received payments<br>69 Made payments only<br>51 51<br>46<br>34<br>35 37<br>32<br>24<br>14<br>13<br>5<br>East Asia Europe High-income Latin Middle South Sub-Saharan<br>& Pacific & Central OECD America & East Asia Africa<br>Asia economies Caribbean<br>Source: Global Findex database.<br> 2.14<br>Use of accounts for digital payments in the BRICS countries<br>Adults with an account by its use for payments in the past year (as % of all adults), 2014<br>79<br>68 67 70<br>No payments<br>60<br>53<br>51<br>Received payments only<br>42 40<br>Made and received payments<br>15<br>Made payments only<br>Brazil China India Russian South<br>Federation Africa<br>Source: Global Findex database.<br><!-- End of picture text --> Among those using their account for payments, is it most common to only make payments, to only receive payments, or to both make and receive payments? In high-income OECD economies and Sub-Saharan Africa adults most commonly reported using their account to both make and receive payments. In all other regions, by contrast, they most often reported only receiving payments.

The BRICS countries—Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa—illustrate how widely the use of accounts for making and receiving payments can vary even among countries with broadly similar levels of account penetration (figure 2.14). Among these five countries, China has the highest share of adults with an account, at 79 percent. But South Africa has the highest share of adults who reported using an account to make or receive payments, at 60 percent, followed by the Russian Federation with 51 percent. In Brazil and China about 40 percent of adults reported using FIGURE 2.14 37 THE GLOBAL FINDEX DATABASE