Financial Services Demand-side Survey of FijiLiz Larson, Results Measurement Advisor, Pacific Financial Inclusion Program (PFIP)

National Financial Inclusion Strategy Consultation Workshop of Fiji

Holiday Inn, Suva, Fiji, Nov 2015

Structure of the Session

Intro to the report High-level data on Financial Inclusion

Who are the unbanked and why are they unbanked?

Geography Rural / Urban Divide Gender Mobile Money and other services Insurance Remittances Savings Credit

Demand Side Surveys (DSS) of Fiji

Understand citizens’ needs

Explore barriers for access

Establish baseline

GOAL

Methodology

Random selection Geographically and ethnically proportional Respondents over 15 years old Equal balance of men and women

1,28715

Respondents

Provinces

Percentage of Fijians with a formal bank account

60%

Percentage of Fijians without a formal bank

account

27%

Percentage of Fijians using other formal financial services

4%

9%Percentage of Fijians using informal

financial services

Example of blank slideFiji

Solomon Islands

Samoa

60%

26%

39%

4%

8%

12%

9%

35%

15%

27%

31%

34%Financial inclusion strands

Banked Other Formal Informal Only Excluded

Fiji has highest number of unbanked Margin between excluded sector is not high

Mor

e hi

gh le

vel

stat

s1,1274212

Deposit accountsper 1,000 people

ATMs per 100,000 people

Bank branchesPer 100,000

Higher than peers

Higher than peers (ex.

Samoa)

Higher than peers (ex.

Samoa)

More likely to be:RuralWomenDerive income from agriculture or casual labor

Not formally employedAge range 15-20 or 61-70Live in Eastern or Western Divisions iTaukei (Informal only is much higher for iTaukei)

1/4 of them used to have a formal account, but now don’t

Who are the “excluded” in Fiji?

Why aren’t people using services?Not enough money1 50

%Someone else has account2 23

%

Lacks documents4 17%

Bank is too far3 20%

Banks are too expensive5 13%

Highest “Excluded” % in Eastern Division (41%), lowest in North (21%)

Highest “Informal Only” % in Northern and Eastern Divisions (25%, 16%)

Highest numbers of banked in Central and Western

Geography

Associated with higher levels of formal employment in cities

Distance is great in rural areas

Rural / Urban Divide

74% 46%Urban residentshave formal account

Rural residentshave formal account

Large gender disparity (16%) Higher than other other middle income countries More women than men have left formal banking

Account ownership by gender 16%

CASH is KING! Despite high awareness, mobile money usage is low

Usage of other non-basic products also low

Mobile moneyAnd other services76%

80%11%

Fijians own Mobile phone

Have heard ofmobile money

Have mobileMoney account*

* Of the 80% who have heard of mobile money

Use of insurance minimal Higher in urban areas, formally employed and higher economic groups

Insurance

12%

Fijians have insurance

Don’t need1 40%

Don’t know what it is3 25

%

Too expensive2 30%

People receive from either domestic or international – not both

Delivery channels for domestic: Post Office (43%), informal (31%)

Delivery channels for international: Western Union (72%)

Recipients tend to be women, urban, in “other” category, or iTaukei

Remittances

23% 1/3Fijians received Remittance last year

Of all urban women received a remittance last year

Savings rates are higher than peer countries Savings rates are similar across income levels Savings type differ between financial inclusion strands

Savings

71.2%

Fijians saved money in the past 12 months

More common in urban areas (36%) where salaried workers are more prevalent

70% of users are salaried: 12% have no formal salary

Use of FNPF or Superannuation Fund

Much lower than peer countries Semi formal credit sources play a significant role Mostly consumer credit Higher for iTaukei population Possible untapped market

Credit

32% 6.9%Loan from any sourcein past year

Loan from financialInstitution in past year

Questions?

THANK YOU!