Mobile phones and the internet are revolutionizing financial inclusion, enabling more people to access and use digital financial services to manage their financial lives. From mobile money accounts accessible on basic phones, to bank-account-linked wallets used on smartphones, digital services are fulfilling their promise of being more accessible and affordable than traditional alternatives.
Digital financial services offer numerous benefits, such as the ability to make daily savings deposits using local agents, manage loan disbursements and repayments using an app, and purchase pay-as-you-go renewable electricity directly from a phone. These services are not just convenient but are integral to making finance more accessible and affordable.
The latest Global Findex 2025 report, Connectivity and Financial Inclusion in the Digital Economy, reveals a remarkable surge in financial account ownership and use of digital financial services, but also highlights critical areas for continued focus: closing gaps in access to digital technology and financial services and better equipping people to leverage financial services for their needs.
Globally, 79 percent of adults now have an account
Worldwide, 79 percent of adults have an account at a bank or similar financial institution or through a mobile money provider, or both (map 1), up from 74 in 2021 and up from 51 percent in 2011 when the first round of Global Findex data was collected. In low- and middle-income economies, 75 percent of adults now have an account.
Map 1: Account ownership rates vary around the world
Digital technology is driving the growth in account ownership
In low- and middle-income economies, mobile money accounts are driving this growth in account ownership. Over the past 10 years, growth in account ownership has mirrored that of mobile money account ownership, both alone or in tandem with an account at a bank or similar financial institution (figure 1). Moreover, account owners increasingly use their mobile phones or debit or credit cards connected to their accounts to make transactions: more than half of all accounts in low- and middle-income economies are digitally enabled in this way.
Sub-Saharan Africa continues to lead the world in mobile money account adoption, with 40 percent of adults having a mobile money account in 2024, up from 27 percent in 2021. Other regions are catching up, such as Latin America and the Caribbean, where 37 percent of adults now have a mobile money account, up from 22 percent in 2021. Some economies across Europe and Central Asia are similarly narrowing financial inclusion gaps by embracing mobile money or other digitally enabled accounts.
Figure 1: Mobile money contributed to the overall increase in account ownership in low-and middle-income economies from 2014 to 2024
Technology is also driving a surge in formal saving and digital payments
Formal saving has surged, enabled by digital accounts, breaking a long-term trend of slow growth in the share of adults who save. As of 2024, 40 percent of adults in low- and middle-income economies saved using an account, an increase of 16 percentage points more than in 2021. In both Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa, the share of adults saving using mobile money increased by more than 10 percentage points, totaling 19 and 23 percent of adults, respectively (figure 2).
Figure 2: Mobile money accounts are an important mode of saving in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean
Across low- and middle-income economies, 61 percent of adults, or 82 percent of account owners, made or received a digital payment (figure 3). This represents a 27-percentage-point increase since 2014. Digital merchant payments—payments by customers to businesses, either in stores or online—grew to 42 percent of all adults in 2024, more than doubling in some economies. This shift to digital merchant payments benefits both buyers and sellers. Digital payments are safer than cash payments and can help small-scale merchants access credit by giving them real-time records of cash flows they can use to support loan applications aimed at funding working capital or job creation.
Figure 3: The share of adults using digital payments continues to grow
Further expanding digital and financial inclusion
Despite these achievements, the Global Findex 2025 data reveal two important challenges:
- Too many adults remain either entirely excluded from or with limited access to the digital economy and the formal financial system. Despite high mobile phone ownership—86 percent of adults globally have a mobile phone—and growth in account ownership, 1.3 billion adults still lack financial accounts. Many of these individuals have the foundations needed to get a digitally enabled account, such as mobile phones, personal ID, and SIM cards registered in their names. In an environment with robust consumer protection in which they have access to appropriately designed, affordable, and convenient financial products, this group could be the next beneficiaries of efforts toward financial inclusion.
- Helping those who have accounts but engage in only limited activity involving them, transition from informal financial services to formal alternatives will also require distinct approaches. Supportive financial sector infrastructure, such as interoperable fast payment systems, and regulations, such as consumer protection frameworks, could help strengthen future initiatives for financial inclusion.
Digital technology is unlocking financial inclusion, but efforts to further expand digital and financial inclusion should ensure that the necessary infrastructure and consumer protections are in place.
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