The financial inclusion agenda: for poverty alleviation or monetary control?

Abstract

This article argues that financial inclusion policy in Pakistan has been subsumed by the regulatory needs of the central bank, opening a divide between the ‘development approach’ of donors and the ‘regulatory approach’ of the central bank. This shift is identified in an emerging macro turn in central bank discourse and policy, which is steering the National Financial Inclusion Strategy away from the person-centred donor-driven agenda towards the imperative of shoring up rupee governance amidst burgeoning informal markets, low levels of bank intermediation and high levels of currency-in-circulation. The article argues that this rerouting of financial inclusion policy is ultimately a consequen..