PH financial inclusion trails peers

Despite the vulnerability of Filipino households to socioeconomic shocks and natural disasters, their access to financial services remains a laggard compared to the Philippines' regional and income-level peers, the 2025 Global Findex Database of the World Bank showed.

- By BEN ARNOLD DE VERA

According to the World Bank's latest survey across 141 economies, which the Washington-based multilateral lender conducted last year, 50.2 percent of Filipino adults have financial accounts-below the average of 83.3 percent in the East Asia and Pacific region and the 70.4-percent average among lower-middle-income economies.

Based on World Bank data, a slightly higher 51.4 percent of Filipino adults had access to bank, mobile money, and digitally enabled accounts at the height of the most stringent Covid-19 lockdowns in 2021, which was about double the mere 26.6 percent in 2011.

The stagnant share of Filipinos included in the financial inclusion net between 2021 and 2024 contrasts with the regional climb in East Asia and Pacific to 83.3 percent from 79.7 percent, as well as the jump among lowermiddle-income countries (LMICs) to 70.4 percent from 62.1 percent.

In 2024, 33.5 percent of Filipinos had bank accounts, below the regional and income group averages of 82.2 percent and 65 percent, respectively.