Full financial inclusion is a state in which all people and businesses who can use them have access to a full range of financial services at an affordable price and good quality. The aim of this webinar was to explain the role of payment systems, especially the retail payments, in the achievement of higher level of financial inclusion and access to finance, which are considered as a prerequisite for further financial market development.

During this webinar we discussed:

• What is financial inclusion and what is digital inclusion?
• The relevance of retail payments for financial inclusion
• Fintech companies as significant determinant for greater financial inclusion
• Measurement of the level of financial inclusion from a payments perspective (relevant reports, indicators, surveys)
• Designing of National Strategies for Financial Inclusion and their alignment with national and international regulations and payments systems
• Case studies from The Republic of Macedonia on financial inclusion

Target audience

The webinar was primarily designed for staff and managers in Payments Systems Departments at central banks, as well as the ones engaged in dealing with issues such as financial inclusion and literacy.

Moreover, officials at Ministries of Finance (and other line ministries), Insurance Supervision Agencies, Securities Commissions, as well as other government bodies in South East Europe, involved in financial education and broadening access to finance were also invited to take part, as the webinar was designed to provide an insight into the relevance of payments systems in the process of expanding financial inclusion.

The webinar was held in English. It was designed to be partaking by combining subject matter presentations with question and answer sessions. This way, it supported active engagement of the attendees.

Faculty

Michiel van Doeveren, Senior Policy Advisor,  Payments Policy Department, De Nederlandsche Bank

Michiel van Doeveren (1960) is senior-policy advisor at the Payment Systems Policy Department of de Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). He has been working at DNB since 1988, after he graduated economics at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam and worked at Delft Technological University. Michiel worked as a country economist at the Export Credit and Import Guarantee Department of DNB and was a member of the Paris Club for debt negotiations.

In 1995 Michiel joined the Cash and Payment Systems Division of DNB. DNB is a member of the European System of Central Banks. Michiel fulfilled a lot of responsibilities during the introduction of the euro and the millennium changeover. He is one of the architects of DNB for designing and building an assessment framework to promote sound business continuity policy and crisis management.

Since 2005 Michiel is secretary of the Dutch National Forum on the Payment System. Michiel is particularly involved in the SEPA standards, innovative payment products & market infrastructures and in financial inclusion. He is participating in the work of the Euro Retail Payments Board. Furthermore he is an expert in technical cooperation activities in the field of payments and securities settlement systems with a range of other countries.

Judith Looman, Policy Advisor,  Payments Policy Department, De Nederlandsche Bank

Judith Looman studied International Financial Economics at the University of Amsterdam. She started working at the Dutch Central Bank in the Payments Policy Department in 2005. She is now secretary of the Working Group on Accessibility of the National Forum on the Payment System and has also been a secretary of the working group on Efficiency and European Affairs. She is a member of the Payments Policy Working Group of the ECB and secretary of the ERPB informal working group on Accessibility. Furthermore, she is active in the field of technical cooperation with other countries.

Igor Velichkovski, Ph.D, Manager of Payment Systems Department, National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia

Igor Velichkovski, Ph.D is a Manager of Payment Systems Department at the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia. His previous work experience was closely related to monetary policy implementation and foreign reserve management as he has been a Head of the Open Market Operations Division and Deputy Manager of the Financial Market Operations Department. He holds a doctorate in Economics obtained from Staffordshire University, UK. He is Associate Professor of Economics at the UACS School of Business Economics and Management. He has been engaged in several research projects and received the Dr Dragoslav Avramovic´ award given by the National Bank of Serbia for the best research paper in macroeconomics and finance in 2012.

Practical information

When: June 14, 2018 from 10:00 until 11:30 am CEST.

Where: From the convenience of your own computer, tablet or smartphone; you are encouraged to jointly connect with your colleagues.

How: You need to install the WebEX plugin to your device. This will take only a few minutes but may require informing your system administrator. For detailed technical information please read the Guidelines on how to attend a webinar before the webinar starts.

Participation is free of charge.

To register for this webinar click the “Apply now’’ button on the right-hand side, or click here. You will be redirected to the CEF Online Learning Campus, where you need to click the “Enroll’’ button under the title of this webinar. 

Reading resources

Payments Aspects on Financial Inclusion, World Bank Group and Bank for International Settlements

Transition Report 2016-17 Financial Inclusion, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

The Role of Payments Systems and Services in Financial Inclusion, Center for Latin American Monetary Studies

Partners

This learning initiative was supported by: