Policy leadership
Promoting policy and regulatory environments that support development outcomes
While financial regulation generally aims to protect people with access to the formal banking industry, FDC has consistently placed a high priority on promoting policy and regulatory environments that support development outcomes including access to and use of responsible financial products and services at the grassroots level, including the informal economy.
Since its establishment in 1990, FDC has been able to influence the regional policy agenda by successfully fostering innovation and promoting development cooperation and partnerships on a regional level. By promoting and facilitating dialogue between senior government representatives and industry leaders, FDC has influenced regulatory frameworks to enable greater inclusiveness, universal protection, and innovation .
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) was established in 1989 as a regional Forum to create greater prosperity within the region through the promotion of inclusive, sustainable and innovative growth. Since the mid-1990s, FDC has played an active role in promoting development opportunities within the APEC regional dialogue and has bolstered APEC’s progressive adoption of a wider agenda beyond trade issues.
In 2010, FDC’s contributions resulted in the APEC Finance Ministers launching an official Financial Inclusion Policy Initiative to “identify concrete actions that financial policy makers can take to expand the reach of financial services to the under-served”. As part of the leadership team since its inception, FDC has successfully facilitated high-level dialogue and collaboration among APEC member economies to increase understanding, debate and validate proposed policy and regulatory reforms in support of broadening the scope and impact of financial inclusion efforts across the region.
APEC regional policy dialogues represent an important avenue which FDC and Asian Development Bank utilises to research, represent and advocate for the needs of the informal economy and the significant potential of micro-enterprises as contributors to economic growth.
Read more about the Asia-Pacific Financial Inclusion Forum here.