NEW YORK – A top motivation for central banks to issue digital currencies, the Atlantic Council reports, is “promoting financial inclusion by providing easy and safer access to money for unbanked and underbanked populations.”
Only 6% of people in high-income OECD countries are unbanked, compared with nearly half in the Global South, according to the World Bank. The United States has nearly 30 bank branches per 100,000 population, compared with four in least developed countries.
Mobile broadband and inexpensive smartphones can provide the poorest countries with quick access to financial services at a fraction of the cost of brick-and-mortar banking. Billions of people now on the margin of the world market can gain access to payment services and micro-credit, promoting local entrepreneurship.
