Efforts to Advance Financial Inclusion of Children and Youth Get Boost

The FINANCIAL — MasterCard and Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI) announced a global strategic partnership aimed at advancing financial capabilities of children and youth, according to MasterCard.

Of the 2.2 billion children in the world less than 1 percent has access to any form of financial education, often exposing them to potential exploitation. MasterCard and CYFI share the belief that enabling financial inclusion and education is critical for promoting the economic and social livelihood of children and youth around the globe.

As one of their first actions, MasterCard and CYFI have joined forces to develop guidelines for responsible financial products for children and youth. These guidelines build on the Children’s Rights and Business Principles adopted by UNICEF and are meant to provide practical orientation for banks that want to serve a younger demographic. The guide will be published this spring and made available to financial institutions, NGOs and government entities, according to MasterCard.

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"We share CYFI’s vision that every child and youth has a right to safe, accessible financial services and are honored to bring our expertise and experience to this partnership, empowering the young generation to grow into productive economic citizens,” said Ajay Banga, MasterCard President and CEO.

“Roughly half of the world’s population is under the age of 25 – and it takes a broad effort to building up their financial capabilities. We are delighted that MasterCard, a trail-blazer for financial inclusion, is supporting us in our goal to reach 100 million children and youth in 100 countries by 2015,” Jeroo Billimoria, CYFI Managing Director said.

Apart from raising general awareness for the specific needs of children and youth, MasterCard and CYFI will partner to define and execute concrete strategies that advance financial inclusion and education. Both MasterCard and CYFI acknowledge the key role that public-private-partnerships can play in furthering this goal and are committed to working together with businesses, governments and NGOs.