Accion and Citi: Partnership in Building a Financially Inclusive World

Many know that Citi has an extraordinary 200-year history that helped chart the course of modern financial services - but equally impactful is the nearly half-century commitment that Citi has demonstrated to expanding financial inclusion for some of the most vulnerable in our society - those living in poverty.

Today, the Citi Foundation is the lead partner and founding sponsor of the Financial Inclusion 2020 initiative, an effort spearheaded by the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) at Accion. Using the year 2020 as a focal point for action, FI2020 aims to mobilize stakeholders around the world to work collaboratively towards full financial inclusion, which CFI defines as "a state in which everyone who can use them has access to a full suite of quality financial services, provided at affordable prices, in a convenient manner, with respect and dignity."

Since January, working groups have been mapping the so-called "invisible market" to better understand the broad demographic changes occurring at the base of the global economic pyramid. Others are developing the "Roadmap to Inclusion," an action-oriented blueprint for reaching new and underserved markets and for achieving a financially inclusive world. Together, we'll address issues of financial literacy, data analytics, technology-enabled business models, and more.

Citi's commitment to the years-long push behind this ambitious goal is the latest example of its work with key partners, including Accion, to expand financial inclusion. We have been working with Citi for nearly 50 years, starting in 1965 when Accion was a small non-profit focused on community development in Latin America. Together, over several decades, we've helped build microfinance institutions around the world, created financial education programs, and fueled research and thought-leadership activities. Over time, our ambition and scale have grown, but our partnership endures.

Whether in the developed world or in the developing world, Citi and Accion share the view that access to basic financial services can unlock enormous opportunity. We all need a safe place to save, access to credit to manage large purchases, go to school or build a business, insurance and efficient payment mechanisms.

Accion has worked with Citi Microfinance in a number of countries supporting Accion member institutions to reduce foreign exchange risk, to access local currency funding, in investing jointly in the Microfinance Growth Fund and in establishing Accion Microfinance Bank, the leading microfinance institution in Nigeria. In very challenging environments from Latin America to Africa and elsewhere, Accion and Citi have helped advance a global microfinance industry that is making progress in meeting enormous needs.

Citi continues to support research, innovations, institutions, intermediaries and networks that expand financial inclusion by combining access with education, while achieving scale and sustainability. As a result of a strategic, high-impact engagement over decades, Citi helps drive a global conversation on financial inclusion from every angle.

Over the last few decades, microfinance has grown to reach more than 200 million people around the world. This is very impressive - yet there is much more to do. Today, 2.5 billion people live in poverty and lack access to financial services. We can change that. We can build a financial system that includes those who are left out. We are very proud to be a very long-term partner with Citi. Together, we will help build a truly financially inclusive world