A call for diversity in lending procedures

Individuals, small firms still lack access to credit, UN official says

Since the 2008 global crisis, there has been a lot of soul-searching about the role of the financial industry at both the national and international levels. People have now recognized many problems in the system that were overlooked during boom times: excessive concentration in a few sectors, ineffective supervision and the exclusion of many communities.

Lessons were learned, and much was accomplished to tackle some of these problems. But the situation is still far from satisfactory. According to Shamshad Akhtar, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, "billions of people are still excluded from the formal financial system".