Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Karrol Messer and
Speaker 1: Tim Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio. Improving inclusion is a big
Speaker 1: issue in society. It's a big issue for corporations the
Speaker 1: C suite, and that includes financial inclusion. Our next guest
Speaker 1: focus is on that. Shamina Singh. She's the founder and
Speaker 1: president of Mastercard's Center for Inclusive Growth. She joins us
Speaker 1: on Zoom from New York City. Shamina, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining us here talk to us about what financial
Speaker 1: inclusion is. So first of all, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for having me here. It's an incredibly important topic. But
Speaker 1: it's a pretty simple idea, and that is that everyone
Speaker 1: in the world deserves to be engaged in the formal
Speaker 1: financial system. I think it's probably surprising to a lot
Speaker 1: of people that there are many, many, hundreds of millions
Speaker 1: of people around the world who don't participate in the
Speaker 1: formal economy, and they actually spend most of their currency
Speaker 1: and most of their time and energy transacting in an
Speaker 1: environment that is mostly cash and mostly insecure. And so
Speaker 1: the idea is that we as companies, as regulators, as
Speaker 1: governments all need to come together to ensure that as
Speaker 1: many people as possible have access to the rules, the regulations,
Speaker 1: the responsibilities and the benefits of engaging in a formal
Speaker 1: financial system. So shemina, what are some of the priorities there?
Speaker 1: For inclusion is as simple as getting more people to
Speaker 1: be able to open bank accounts, investment accounts, all the above. Well, look,
Speaker 1: I think it's all of the above, But at its core,
Speaker 1: I think it's about making sure that people do have
Speaker 1: access to bank accounts or some sort of account that
Speaker 1: allows them to store their money, stored their money safely,
Speaker 1: spend their money securely with them being in charge of it,
Speaker 1: and ensured that they have things like insurance and the
Speaker 1: ability to spend in a way that aligns with their responsibilities.
Speaker 1: You know, over the last ten years, what's interesting is
Speaker 1: we have been able to work across the world to
Speaker 1: actually increase financial inclusion by fifty percent. There are over
Speaker 1: seventy five percent of adults around the world now that
Speaker 1: do have access to formal bank accounts. And I have
Speaker 1: to tell you that when we first started on this
Speaker 1: journey over ten years ago, that was definitely not the case.
Speaker 1: So it's working, but there's more work to do. She mean,
Speaker 1: it it's just primarily an emerging markets issue, and if so,
Speaker 1: where are some of the key markets that you guys
Speaker 1: are really focused on. Now It's funny, you know, I
Speaker 1: just landed from Ethiopia today this afternoon, and that is
Speaker 1: a market that is just ripe for expansion. It's opening,
Speaker 1: it's exciting, it's growing. But the vast majority of adults
Speaker 1: in Ethiopi you don't have access to formal regulated bank accounts.
Speaker 1: But that's not the only place. I mean, there are
Speaker 1: pockets around the world, certainly, but even here in the
Speaker 1: United States and developing economies, there are millions of people
Speaker 1: that don't have access and don't participate in the formal economy.
Speaker 1: So I think we'd all be surprised at how hard
Speaker 1: it is actually to engage in a responsible way in
Speaker 1: the economy. And it's also one of the reasons why
Speaker 1: we're convening the Inclusive Growth Summit, but also calling on
Speaker 1: the administration and members of Congress to pass a national
Speaker 1: Financial Inclusion Strategy in the United States. So, for a
Speaker 1: country like Ethiopa, what are some of the barriers that
Speaker 1: are preventing people from participating in the financial system. I'm
Speaker 1: guessing one is just not a lot of brick and
Speaker 1: mortar banks. Is it as simple as that. I wish
Speaker 1: it was as simple as that, you know, And it's
Speaker 1: becoming easier with you know, mobile phones and sell service
Speaker 1: and the digital divide hopefully decreasing over time. The opportunity
Speaker 1: is there for more people to participate. But oftentimes, because
Speaker 1: people transact in cash, they're paid in cash, they spend
Speaker 1: in cash, it's hard not to participate in a digital economy.
Speaker 1: And so one of the things that we saw during COVID,
Speaker 1: and I don't think people will be surprised by this,
Speaker 1: is that those who were not able to operate more
Speaker 1: digitally really fell behind the curve in their ability to
Speaker 1: transact and succeed in a digital economy. And so I
Speaker 1: think that the urgency of now and the urgency of
Speaker 1: anyone either from you know, from Michigan to Mumbai to
Speaker 1: participate in the formal economy through digitization is an extremely
Speaker 1: important topic for us to tackle. So she mean, this
Speaker 1: seems like an opportunity that will be right for a
Speaker 1: public private partnership type of thing. Really amazing fintech companies
Speaker 1: out there, and if I think if I could get
Speaker 1: my technology into some of these areas you know, you
Speaker 1: can really make a difference. So talk to us about
Speaker 1: how they approach how governments approach it. Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: interesting and you're absolutely right, like for issues related to
Speaker 1: not only financial inclusion, but shared prosperity, inclusive growth, climate,
Speaker 1: all of the things that we're focused on in our
Speaker 1: individual silos with whether it's private sector or a public
Speaker 1: sector or a social sector. The opportunity now is to
Speaker 1: actually move from silos to solutions and really break down
Speaker 1: the barriers that exist between public, private, social sectors to
Speaker 1: ensure that we bring all of our assets, all of
Speaker 1: our superpowers, if you will, together to ensure a strong
Speaker 1: and positive collective outcome for everyone. So, Shamia, with this
Speaker 1: summit coming up next month in April, what's top of
Speaker 1: the agenda there? What are some of the priorities that's
Speaker 1: top of the agenda? I think is you know, the
Speaker 1: urgency of now and making sure that we're bringing together
Speaker 1: the right leaders at the right time to form common
Speaker 1: cause around the issues that we're all facing, the calamity
Speaker 1: of climate change, the you know, the fundamentals around financial inclusion,
Speaker 1: the opportunities related to inclusive growth, but also the idea
Speaker 1: that you know, with all of the new technology, all
Speaker 1: of the chat, gbt AI, all of the things that
Speaker 1: we're asking questions about. The opportunity now is to say,
Speaker 1: how are we ensuring that those technologies work for us
Speaker 1: not against us? And those are the time the kinds
Speaker 1: of topics and conversations that will be discussing at the
Speaker 1: Inclusive Growth sum It by people who are at the
Speaker 1: top of their game, though I buy the decision makers
Speaker 1: who can cross boundaries to ensure that what we talk
Speaker 1: about actually becomes implemented in action. It's just about ten
Speaker 1: fifteen seconds. If an im in the United States is
Speaker 1: here illegally, can hear she open a bank account? It depends.
Speaker 1: It depends on a couple of things related to the
Speaker 1: banking regulations. But if they're here illegally, they can absolutely
Speaker 1: open a bank account. Okay, there you go. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's very interesting because I remember it's very interesting
Speaker 1: Shimida sing I, founder in president MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth,
Speaker 1: joining us on Zoom from New York City. But I
Speaker 1: remember working at a bank as in college, and the
Speaker 1: illegal immigrants will just go to and after I worked
Speaker 1: at the bank, I worked at Eddie's Donuts right next door,
Speaker 1: and they'd come in, cash their checks and buy money
Speaker 1: orders because they couldn't open a bank account. It's just
Speaker 1: like really