This departmental paper marks the 10th anniversary of the IMF Financial Access Survey (FAS). It o... more This departmental paper marks the 10th anniversary of the IMF Financial Access Survey (FAS). It offers a retrospective of the FAS database, along with some reflections as to its future directions. Since its 2009 launch, the FAS has provided granular data on access to and use of financial services. It is a supply-side database with annual global coverage based on data sourced directly from financial service providers—aimed at supporting policymakers to target and evaluate financial inclusion policies. Its data collection has kept pace with financial innovation, such as the rise of mobile money and growing demand for gender-disaggregated data—and the FAS must continue to evolve.
This departmental paper marks the 10th anniversary of the IMF Financial Access Survey (FAS). It o... more This departmental paper marks the 10th anniversary of the IMF Financial Access Survey (FAS). It offers a retrospective of the FAS database, along with some reflections as to its future directions. Since its 2009 launch, the FAS has provided granular data on access to and use of financial services. It is a supply-side database with annual global coverage based on data sourced directly from financial service providers—aimed at supporting policymakers to target and evaluate financial inclusion policies. Its data collection has kept pace with financial innovation, such as the rise of mobile money and growing demand for gender-disaggregated data—and the FAS must continue to evolve.
This paper seeks to examine the determinants of FDI into Latin America with an aim to make policy... more This paper seeks to examine the determinants of FDI into Latin America with an aim to make policy recommendations to boost FDI into the region. Using data for 17 Latin American countries for the period from 1990 to 2013 and two-way fixed effects method of estimation, the paper is an attempt to explore whether the macroeconomic factors like inflation, exchange rate, risk factors like return on investment or institutional factors like good governance are instrumental in attracting FDI. The results suggest that infrastructural development, human capital and good governance play crucial roles in promoting FDI inflows into the region. Higher labor costs seem to inhibit FDI inflows. The results have three fundamental policy implications. The host country governments may take measures like investment in education, infrastructure and improving governance to attract FDI.
The new government in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to pu... more The new government in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to pursue e-Governance as a part of its bigger strategy to improve governance and reduce corruption in the country. There is empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of e-Governance as a tool to reduce corruption. This goal of adopting e-Governance is not a new phenomenon in India as an elaborate National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was adopted way back in 2006. In spite of being an early starter, India has made little progress in this area. There have been several e-Governance projects in the past, which have been initiated by governments at state/ local levels. However, these projects met with limited success due to the lack of adequate digital infrastructure, lack of long-term planning, lack of continuity due to changing leadership and others. The current initiatives are under a comprehensive plan and motivated leadership, which were lacking in the previous ad-hoc attempts. Yet, there are several challenges faced by the Government of India in implementing e-Governance to reduce corruption. This policy paper aims to assess the scope of recent e- Governance schemes of the Modi government to reduce corruption and make policy recommendations on increasing their efficacy.
The rapid uptake of mobile money in recent years has generated new data needs and growing interes... more The rapid uptake of mobile money in recent years has generated new data needs and growing interest in understanding its impact on broad money. This paper reviews mobile money trends using mobile money data from the Financial Access Survey (FAS) and examines the statistical treatment of mobile money under the IMF’s Monetary and Financial Statistics (MFS) framework. MFS guidance is straightforward in most cases, as many jurisdictions have adopted regulations which ensure that mobile money is captured in the banking system and thus in the calculation of broad money. However, in cases where mobile network operators (MNOs) act as niche financial intermediaries outside the banking regulatory perimeter and are allowed to invest their customer funds in sovereign securities and other permitted assets, mobile money liabilities may remain outside the banking system as well as monetary statistics. In that case, information on mobile money liabilities need to be collected directly from MNOs to account for mobile money as part of broad money.
This departmental paper marks the 10th anniversary of the IMF Financial Access Survey (FAS). It o... more This departmental paper marks the 10th anniversary of the IMF Financial Access Survey (FAS). It offers a retrospective of the FAS database, along with some reflections as to its future directions. Since its 2009 launch, the FAS has provided granular data on access to and use of financial services. It is a supply-side database with annual global coverage based on data sourced directly from financial service providers—aimed at supporting policymakers to target and evaluate financial inclusion policies. Its data collection has kept pace with financial innovation, such as the rise of mobile money and growing demand for gender-disaggregated data—and the FAS must continue to evolve.
This departmental paper marks the 10th anniversary of the IMF Financial Access Survey (FAS). It o... more This departmental paper marks the 10th anniversary of the IMF Financial Access Survey (FAS). It offers a retrospective of the FAS database, along with some reflections as to its future directions. Since its 2009 launch, the FAS has provided granular data on access to and use of financial services. It is a supply-side database with annual global coverage based on data sourced directly from financial service providers—aimed at supporting policymakers to target and evaluate financial inclusion policies. Its data collection has kept pace with financial innovation, such as the rise of mobile money and growing demand for gender-disaggregated data—and the FAS must continue to evolve.
This paper seeks to examine the determinants of FDI into Latin America with an aim to make policy... more This paper seeks to examine the determinants of FDI into Latin America with an aim to make policy recommendations to boost FDI into the region. Using data for 17 Latin American countries for the period from 1990 to 2013 and two-way fixed effects method of estimation, the paper is an attempt to explore whether the macroeconomic factors like inflation, exchange rate, risk factors like return on investment or institutional factors like good governance are instrumental in attracting FDI. The results suggest that infrastructural development, human capital and good governance play crucial roles in promoting FDI inflows into the region. Higher labor costs seem to inhibit FDI inflows. The results have three fundamental policy implications. The host country governments may take measures like investment in education, infrastructure and improving governance to attract FDI.
The new government in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to pu... more The new government in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to pursue e-Governance as a part of its bigger strategy to improve governance and reduce corruption in the country. There is empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of e-Governance as a tool to reduce corruption. This goal of adopting e-Governance is not a new phenomenon in India as an elaborate National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was adopted way back in 2006. In spite of being an early starter, India has made little progress in this area. There have been several e-Governance projects in the past, which have been initiated by governments at state/ local levels. However, these projects met with limited success due to the lack of adequate digital infrastructure, lack of long-term planning, lack of continuity due to changing leadership and others. The current initiatives are under a comprehensive plan and motivated leadership, which were lacking in the previous ad-hoc attempts. Yet, there are several challenges faced by the Government of India in implementing e-Governance to reduce corruption. This policy paper aims to assess the scope of recent e- Governance schemes of the Modi government to reduce corruption and make policy recommendations on increasing their efficacy.
The rapid uptake of mobile money in recent years has generated new data needs and growing interes... more The rapid uptake of mobile money in recent years has generated new data needs and growing interest in understanding its impact on broad money. This paper reviews mobile money trends using mobile money data from the Financial Access Survey (FAS) and examines the statistical treatment of mobile money under the IMF’s Monetary and Financial Statistics (MFS) framework. MFS guidance is straightforward in most cases, as many jurisdictions have adopted regulations which ensure that mobile money is captured in the banking system and thus in the calculation of broad money. However, in cases where mobile network operators (MNOs) act as niche financial intermediaries outside the banking regulatory perimeter and are allowed to invest their customer funds in sovereign securities and other permitted assets, mobile money liabilities may remain outside the banking system as well as monetary statistics. In that case, information on mobile money liabilities need to be collected directly from MNOs to account for mobile money as part of broad money.
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