Financial inclusion makes corruption ‘more difficult’, says Queen Máxima

Dutch Queen Máxima has stressed on financial inclusion in Bangladesh as she believes it makes corruption “more difficult” and helps the economy to grow.

Before leaving Bangladesh on Wednesday, she also stressed, at a press briefing, on SIM card registration for mobile financing, which she identified as a “promising” sector during her three-day stay in Dhaka.
 
The queen visited Bangladesh in her capacity as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development.
 
With her professional experiences in banking and emerging markets, she was appointed in this post in 2009.
 
The queen met the president, the prime minister and the finance minister. She also visited several locations in Gazipur at the outskirts of Dhaka and extolled Bangladesh’s efforts to bring people more into the formal financial services.
 
The visit was part of her global effort to raise awareness and foster action for everyone’s financial inclusion.
 
As a special advocate, she campaigns for advancing the financial inclusion agenda, focusing in particular on financially excluded people and small businesses.
 
In Bangladesh, she said, about 70 percent of the people do not have access to formal financial services. She also stressed on having insurances.
 
Lack of financial access indicates that there is no secure way for families to save money for school fees or for any health emergencies.
 
The queen said financial inclusion had been seen as “a tool for women’s empowerment, to create jobs and promote inclusive growth in a country”.
 
In financial inclusion, she said, “You will have a more transparent system that makes corruption more difficult”.
 
Her visit came on the heels of the adoption of sustainable development goals in which inclusive economy was set as a goal.
 
The queen said she had long been meaning to visit Bangladesh in order to witness the activities of financial inclusion.
 
Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman, who was also present at the press briefing, termed the queen “a great friend of Bangladesh” and said: “We are happy to welcome her”.
 
The governor said the bank had adopted a strategy to bring all the people into the formal financial services network by 2021, when Bangladesh aims to be a middle-income country.
 
The queen believed that mobile financing holds the promise in this regard.
 
But she stressed on “regulations (mobile banking) in a way that consumers are protected” and in this regard she suggested SIM card registration.
 
She also emphasised on educating women on the use of mobile phones as she found many who could not use one properly.
 
She said the government’s upcoming financial strategy for Bangladesh must have a clear vision, a mission and targets.
 
But she said coordination among the different agencies would be “extremely important” to implement the national strategy.
 
When asked about reducing the cost of sending remittances globally, she suggested that Bangladesh Bank look into this.
 
She said charges of both sending and receiving might contribute to higher costs of sending remittances.
 
The central bank governor, however, said people can directly receive the remittance in their mobile if they register the SIM card.
 
“It’ll reduce the cost,” he said.
 
The queen champions access to finance and financial literacy in her home country, the Netherlands.