ACCESS FRONTIERS

Access to financial services (or A2F) has become a mantra but unless one can assess what the ‘frontier’ is it will be impossible for financial service providers to develop appropriate products, forms of distribution or for governments to create an effective enabling environment. The Access Frontier approach segments the market for a particular product into five groups: (a) those who now use it, (b) those who could have it but don’t want it, (c) those who are within reach of the market now, (d) and in the foreseeable future, and finally, (e) those outside of the reach of the market because of their low income. With an increased understanding of the state and trajectory of the market, it will assist in driving back the frontier of access to new levels. Documents: The access frontier as an approach and tool in making markets work for the poor by David Porteous. Includes South Africa transaction banking access frontier (FinScopeTM SA 2004) Access to insurance products in Botswana (FinScopeTM Botswana 2004) Access to insurance products in Namibia (FinScopeTM Namibia 2004) Just how transformational is m-banking? (Porteous uses FinScopeTM SA 2004 and 2006 to assess potential of m-banking) Access to financial products in Zambia :: an analysis based on FinScopeTM 2005 data The South African savings market for the poor :: Assessing the barriers, costs and potential (FinScopeTM SA 2006) Exploring access to insurance in SA using the access frontier methodology (FinScopeTM SA 2005) Charting the South African housing finance access frontier (FinScopeTM SA 2005) The South African access frontier for health insurance (FinScopeTM SA 2005) Links: FinScope(tm) Africa