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Financial sector authorities increasingly prioritize financial inclusion and financial consumer protection, alongside existing priorities of stability and integrity. An enabling environment that facilitates competition, promotes innovation and the use of technology, addresses risks in a proportionate manner, and empowers financial consumers to make informed choices is critical to improving financial inclusion and consumer protection. The 2017 Global Financial Inclusion and Consumer Protection (FICP) Survey tracks the prevalence of key policy, legal, regulatory, and supervisory approaches to advancing financial inclusion and consumer protection. The 2017 Global FICP Survey covers key topics related to the enabling environment for financial inclusion and financial consumer protection, including national financial inclusion strategies, the issuance of e-money by nonbanks, agent-based delivery models, simplified customer due diligence, institutional arrangements for financial consumer protection, disclosure, dispute resolution, and financial capability. The 2017 Global FICP Survey covers regulated retail institutions that provide standard loan, deposit, or payment services. Financial sector authorities in 124 jurisdictions - representing 141 economies and more than 90 percent of the world's unbanked adult population - responded to the 2017 Global FICP Survey. This report presents main findings from an analysis of those responses.

Contractual Savings --- E-Finance and E-Security --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Literacy --- Financial Regulation and Supervision

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The objectives of a well-designed pension system are poverty reduction in old age and income smoothing throughout an individuals' lifetime. Over the last thirty years, changing demographic trends have caused a shift from 'pay as you go' and occupational defined benefit (DB) schemes - where the obligation for paying for retirement income is with the state and employers - to defined contribution (DC) schemes, where the obligation to save for retirement rests more with individuals. The transition to DC schemes did help establish a strong link between contributions during working life and benefits during retirement, for individuals. However, an increasing challenge has been balancing genuine needs for some pre-retirement liquidity, access to savings and providing adequate income post retirement for individuals. The need to get this balancing act right is being felt increasingly as coverage of national social security systems is expanded to include more of the non-salaried workforce which often has lower levels of income, more periods of unemployment and more irregular earnings. This note surveys recent literature and country experiences to understand if and how countries address the need for pre-retirement liquidity in both mandatory and voluntary DC schemes. The note also uses simple modelling to illustrate the impact of allowing access to pension savings on income adequacy after retirement. The report concludes with recommendations based on emerging best practice.

Access to Finance --- Contractual Savings --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Pensions and Retirement Systems --- Social Funds and Pensions --- Social Protections and Labor

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The penetration level of the insurance and pension sectors in Malawi is low, but it seems adequate as compared with other countries in similar stages of development. Concentration and costs are high, the regulatory framework is outdated or inexistent and supervision is weak. An innovative pilot experience of weather micro-insurance is a good example of private-public partnership to reduce vulnerability and extend benefits, but the coverage is still low. The project faces several challenges, one of them being the need to invest in weather technology. Cost benefit analysis of public projects in this area should take into consideration the possible positive social benefits of income security for vulnerable rural population. The analysis needs to take into account that possibilities to increase micro-insurance penetration may be affected by the level of education of farmers, as well as their specific knowledge of insurance products and their confidence in insurance companies. Life insurance and private pension plans have an acceptable level of development as substitute of the non-existing mandatory pensions for private sector workers, but they need a stronger supervision and regulation to enhance their benefits. Rules should seek to promote portfolio diversification, higher portability of pensions and old age income security through well defined benefit rules.

Access to Information --- Annuities --- Asset Management --- Benefit Formula --- Capacity Building --- Capital Markets --- Civil Service --- Contractual Savings --- Contribution Rates --- Debt --- Expenditures --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial and Private Sector Development --- Financial Regulation & Supervision --- Financial Sector --- Financial Services --- Fund Management --- Income Tax --- Inflation --- Insurance --- Insurance & Risk Mitigation --- Legal Framework --- Legal Reform --- Legislation --- Life Insurance --- Microinsurance --- Mutual Funds --- Non Bank Financial Institutions --- Pension Administration --- Pension Plans --- Pensions & Retirement Systems --- Political Economy --- Retirement --- Social Protections and Labor --- Standards and Financial Reporting --- Technical Assistance --- Underwriting