Financial Inclusion is rapidly moving up the policy agendas of many countries, particularly developing countries. However, one of the obstacles to more effective and widespread financial inclusion is that the international standards that guide the delivery of financial services were originally conceived for financially-advanced developed countries.

In 2011, the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) commissioned a study to investigate the challenges and opportunities to financial inclusion faced by five different developing countries in applying international standards as set by five main standards setting bodies (SSBs).