asia than in any other developing region. 16 although further work is necessary, studies show that microfinance provides expanded access to credit which in turn increases business activity of microentreprenuers. results also suggest that it provides people with more flexibility in choosing their occupation and affords them the possibility of being more self - reliant. 17 advances in information and communication technology, or ict, have the potential to help financial inclusion continue to expand in developing asia, in some cases beyond traditional banks. for example, crowd - funding schemes enable small businesses and poor individuals to see beck, t., demirguc - kunt, a., and levine, r. ( 2007 ). " finance, inequality, and the poor, " journal of economic growth, vol. 12 ( 1 ), pp. 27 - 49. see adb ( 2015 ). " regional sme finance update, " asia sme finance monitor 2014, pp. 9 - 28. mandaluyong city, philippines : adb. see microcredit summit campaign ( 2015 ). the state of the microcredit campaign report, 2015. see banerjee, a., karlan, d., and zinman, j. ( 2015 ). " six randomized evaluations of microcredit : introduction and further steps, " american economic journal : applied economics, vol. 7 ( 1 ), pp. 1 - 21. borrow money from the general public and even across borders. on deposits and remittances, mobile phones and digital money enable companies and individuals at home and abroad to transfer funds, in some cases regardless of whether or not they have bank accounts. financial inclusion in the digital economy has the great potential to help users enter new goods markets and new credit markets. i look forward to seeing the positive impact of such digital financial inclusion on poverty reduction and economic growth in the near future. financial inclusion has implications for the institutional foundations of banking and finance. to introduce new financial services, or to permit new entities to provide traditional services, the relevant financial business laws would need to be updated appropriately. the emergence of new service providers, including ict companies, may call for improvements in monitoring and regulations. at the same time, financial policy measures would need to strike the right balance between dealing with possible issues regarding financial stability and consumer protection, and facilitating the innovation of service - providers. concluding remarks it is 50 years since the establishment of the adb. in spite of the

opaque with regard to their business and financial conditions. also, they are often short of collateral. therefore, they are at a disadvantage when it comes to borrowing money. however, it is mainly small companies that create jobs for the poor. their investments and innovations can support macroeconomic growth. also in the context of small businesses, progress in financial inclusion has been slow in developing asia. the recent percentage share of small companies that borrow from banks was 15 percent in developing asia, while it was 32 percent in non - asian developing regions. 13 one statistical finding clearly shows the benefits of reducing this gap. that is, the level of bank credit relative to gdp can positively explain an income increase for the bottom see allen, f., demirguc - kunt, a., klapper, l., and martinez peria, m. s. ( 2016 ). " the foundations of financial inclusion : understanding ownership and use of formal accounts, " journal of financial intermediation, vol. 27 ( 1 ), pp. 1 - 30. see dupas, p., and robinson, j. ( 2013 ). " why don't the poor save more? evidence from health savings experiments, " american economic review, vol. 103 ( 4 ), pp. 1138 - 1171. see the first chapter of adb ( 2013 ). adb - oecd study on enhancing financial accessibility for smes : lessons from recent crises. mandaluyong city, philippines : adb. income group. 14 efforts are on - going in developing asia to enhance the accessibility of credit to small firms beyond their informational opaqueness. one approach is a centralized approach. an example is to establish a credit bureau for small companies. such a bureau is an important financial infrastructure and is managed by a public agency in eight of the 20 developing asian countries surveyed by the adb. 15 an additional example is to use a public credit guarantee scheme, which has been established in 16 of the 20 countries. these institutional supports have the potential to encourage banks to provide loans for small businesses, thereby promoting financial inclusion. another approach to deal with the informational opaqueness of small businesses is a more individual approach. a prominent example is microfinance. the adb and other multilateral development banks have supported the rapid growth of microfinance institutions by providing them with loans, grants, and technical assistance. in terms of the number of borrowers, microfinance is more active in developing