Thursday, September 10, 2015
MetLife Foundation and The Wall Street Journal Raise Awareness about Financial Inclusion
The Wall Street Journal recognized four winning enterprises of the Financial Inclusion Challenge (The Challenge), sponsored by MetLife Foundation, at an awards presentation ceremony last night held at The Asia Society in Hong Kong.
“In today’s increasingly interconnected world, linked by ever growing financial flows, more than a third of the global population is still financially excluded. It is an economic and a moral imperative that we reach them and empower them.”
“An estimated 1.2 billion people in Asia, nearly 30% of the region’s population, still do not have access to bank accounts or other formal financial services. The region remains home to two-thirds of the world’s poor, with over 800 million Asians still living on less than $1.25 a day and there is strong evidence pointing to deteriorating income equality in recent years,” said Chris Townsend, president of Asia, MetLife, and a board member of MetLife Foundation. “In today’s increasingly interconnected world, linked by ever growing financial flows, more than a third of the global population is still financially excluded. It is an economic and a moral imperative that we reach them and empower them....”