Financial institutions process payments, check a potential borrower’s past experiences with credit and evaluate the suitability of a security interested to be used for a loan. Consumers pay bills, buy houses, and save for retirement – all of these formal financial transactions rely on a foundation of institutions, information, technologies, and rules and standards which enable financial intermediation.

These underlying systems of financial infrastructure are analyzed in a new report "Financial Infrastructure: Building Access Through Transparent and Stable Financial Systems" drawing on efforts of the World Bank Group in payment and securities settlement systems, remittances, credit reporting, and secured transactions and collateral registries, with recommendations for reform to make the system more efficient and reliable reducing costs and increasing access to financial services.

• Financial infrastructure touches at least every 5th person in emerging markets. Today, credit bureaus cover 390 million people, remittances over 700 million and payment systems 1 billion. In financial terms, bureaus support nearly $800 billion worth of credit and the value of remittances reached $328 billion in 2008.
  

Related Content

Paper

New! Financial Infrastructure: Building Access Through Transparent and Stable Financial Systems. (PDF)

Press Release

IFC-World Bank Report Shows Vast Financial Services Expansion Potential in Emerging Markets

Our Work in Financial Infrastructure:
Web sites

Access to Finance Advisory Services

Collateral Registries / Secured Lending

Corporate Governance

Credit Bureaus

Payment & Securities Settlement Systems

Remittances

• Efficient financial infrastructure allows for cost reductions of up to 75% or more in transactions costs for credit evaluations, collaterizing loans, remittances and payments.
  
  
• Improvements in financial infrastructure have the potential to enable access to financial services for half the population in emerging markets in the next 10 years.