But there remain tremendous barriers to unleashing this “fortune at the bottom of the pyramid.” Chief among them: financial exclusion. This is a confluence of multiple barriers: lack of access, lack of physical and social infrastructure, lack of understanding and knowledge, lack of technology; lack of support, lack of confidence, among others. Overcoming these barriers is, in a nutshell, the challenge of financial inclusion.
BIS Review 163/2009  1  Why is financial inclusion important? 5. Why is financial inclusion important? It is important simply because it is a necessary condition for sustaining equitable growth. There are few, if any, instances of an economy transiting from an agrarian system to a post-industrial modern society without broad-based financial inclusion.