After nearly passing half the timeframe set for implementing the national strategy for financial inclusion approved by the Council of Ministers in 2018, the PCMA was able to accomplish many achievements in the context of enhancing financial inclusion in Palestine. It should be noted that the executive plan of the national strategy during the past years faced many challenges represented by the economic and political crises that faced the country, specifically as a result of the clearing (Makasa) and the Covid-19 pandemic crises. However, the regulators doubled their efforts to preserve the integrity of the financial sector, both banking and non-banking, including continuing to work to achieve the goals of financial inclusion. According to the results of calculating the indicators of financial inclusion, which will also be outlined in this report, it is possible to infer the strength of the financial sector and its ability to face the economic crises and the regulative risks. Despite these challenges and the aforementioned updates, the PCMA was able to accomplish a number of achievements aimed, in particular, at enhancing financial inclusion in the non-bank financial sector. The following are the most prominent of those achievements accomplished during 2021:
- Monitoring and Evaluation Activities
- Launching the financial inclusion indicators for 2020[1]
- Preparing for the process of reassessing the results of implementing the national strategy for financial inclusion during 2022.
- Holding the fourth meeting of the National Committee for Financial Inclusion.
- Restructuring the specialized financial inclusion working groups according to the current stage of implementing the strategy:
[1] Indicators of financial inclusion in the non-banking financial sector – مؤشرات الشمول المالي في القطاع المالي غير المصرفي.