Financial inclusion is increasingly linked to mobile access and digital capability. The 2025 Global Findex provides a broad view of how adults use financial services and where gaps remain.
A broader definition of financial access
Financial inclusion is often reduced to one statistic: whether a person has a bank account. The Global Findex takes a wider view, examining payments, saving, borrowing, financial resilience and the use of digital financial services.
The 2025 edition adds a Digital Connectivity Tracker, allowing researchers to look at financial access alongside mobile-phone ownership and internet use. That combination matters because a digital financial service is only useful when people can access the device, network and skills required to use it safely.
What the 2025 database covers
The World Bank says the 2025 Global Findex is based on nationally representative surveys of about 148,000 adults in 141 economies, conducted during 2024. It includes indicators for account ownership, payments, saving, borrowing, financial risk management, mobile connectivity and digital safety.
The dataset can be examined by country, region and income group, and many indicators are also broken down by gender, age, wealth, labour-force participation and rural or urban residence. That granularity is useful for fintech companies because adoption averages can hide major differences between groups.
Payments are an entry point, not the whole story
Digital payments can be the first interaction many people have with formal financial services. A merchant payment, wage transfer or government payment can create a transaction history and a reusable account relationship.
But payments alone do not guarantee financial resilience. People also need appropriate savings, affordable credit, insurance and the ability to manage shocks. A fintech ecosystem that focuses only on transaction volume can therefore miss the broader objective of improving financial outcomes.
Connectivity creates both opportunity and risk
Mobile connectivity can reduce geographic barriers to financial services. A customer may be able to open an account, receive money or pay a merchant without travelling to a branch. Yet the same digital channel can expose users to fraud, social engineering and poor product design.
The Findex 2025 addition of digital-safety indicators is therefore significant. Financial inclusion increasingly requires not just access but the ability to use digital services securely. Consumer education, authentication, fraud controls and clear dispute processes become part of the inclusion infrastructure.
What fintech builders should take from the data
Product teams should segment users by real constraints rather than assume a single digital customer. A rural user may have intermittent connectivity; an older customer may prefer assisted service; a lower-income customer may be especially sensitive to fees or failed transactions.
The strongest fintech products are therefore likely to combine low-friction digital access with human support, transparent pricing and robust safety controls. The Global Findex provides the measurement framework for understanding those gaps; product design determines whether technology actually closes them.
What to watch next
For fintech teams, investors and users, the important question is no longer whether financial services will become more digital. The practical questions are how quickly new infrastructure can scale, how safely it can be operated, and which parts of the customer experience genuinely improve as a result. Regulation, interoperability, fraud controls, resilience and transparent pricing will remain as important as product design.
