Initial talks around preparing the next version of the G20 Financial Inclusion Action Plan (FIAP) and lowering remittance costs were among the key areas of discussion in the first G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) meeting under India’s G20 presidency in the city.

“The Financial Inclusion Action Plan is a three-year document and that continues to be the guiding principle for advancing or managing the GPFI work.

“This year happens to be the year when the new financial inclusion action plan for the period 2024-26 will be prepared. Initial discussions have started on the same,” said Chanchal Sarkar, economic adviser, department of economic affairs in the ministry of finance, after the conclusion of the three-day event in Calcutta.

The overarching objectives of the GPFI includes providing policy analysis, monitor financial inclusion developments according to the G20 financial inclusion indicators, advocate for promoting financial inclusion globally, facilitate co-ordination among GPFI members and global bodies to support specific global financial inclusion efforts in G20 and non-G20 countries.

Sarkar said at the GPFI plenary sessions the discussion took place on the role of digital public infrastructure for advancing financial inclusion, reducing cost of remittances, assessing progress made in implementation of G20 high-level principles for digital financial inclusion and advancing financing for MSMEs.

On the remittance side, in 2016, the G20 had aligned its objective with the UN’s2030 agenda, by including the target of remittances’ cost reduction to less than 3 percent (set under Sustainable Development Goal) and the pledge to eliminate remittance corridors with costs higher than 5 per cent by 2030, according to an October 2022 update from GPFI.

In the second quarter of 2022, the global average cost for sending remittances was 6.01 per cent, a small decrease from 6.09 in Q1 2022 and a decline of 0.29 percentage points from 6.30 in Q2 2021 a year earlier.