Alliance for Financial Inclusion Reaches 100 Member Institutions

BANGKOK, THAILAND, Mar 20 (Marketwire) --
The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) reached a milestone this week
when the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago became the organization's
100th member. AFI's network of institutions now expands across the globe,
with representation in every region. Together, AFI members now cover more
than 95 per cent of the world's unbanked population.

AFI was founded in 2008 as a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded
project to advance the development of smart financial inclusion policy in
developing and emerging countries. A core group of six AFI members
including the Bank of Indonesia, Bank of Thailand, Central Bank of Kenya,
BSP Philippines, SBS Peru and CNBV Mexico believed financial inclusion
could be advanced through peer-to-peer exchanges and knowledge sharing.
The idea of a group of equals coming together to find the best methods to
raise 2.5 billion of the world's impoverished out of poverty caught on
quickly and the AFI Network soon established itself as the world's
largest alliance of financial inclusion policymakers.

In 2011, AFI members collectively adopted the Maya Declaration, a
statement of intent to make financial inclusion a centerpiece of national
efforts for poverty reduction and economic stability. More than 30 AFI
members then went a step further by announcing specific and measurable
commitments. In recognition of these developments, both the G20 and the
G24 highlighted the AFI learning model and the Maya Declaration as key
steps toward global economic development.

"Financial inclusion is no longer a side issue in the global economic
debate," said Alfred Hannig, Executive Director at AFI. "It now has a
permanent and important place in the global discussion on economic
development and stability. And through AFI, those nations with the
biggest stakes in that discussion now have a stronger voice."

AFI has grown into something larger than its founders expected, and the
next stage of AFI's evolution is already underway. At the 2012 Global
Policy Forum (GPF), the members of the AFI Network began a process to
transform AFI from a short-term project into a permanent member-funded
international organization.

With 100 member institutions and a presence across the globe, much has
changed from the early days of the original six AFI members. However, the
core mission of AFI remains the same, adopting and expanding smart
financial inclusion policy to lift the world's unbanked out of poverty.

Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=2261860

Embedded Video Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=2261861

Contact Information:
Peter W. Foster
peter.foster@afi-global.org

Copyright 2013, Marketwire, All rights reserved.

-0-