Since 2011, 1.2 billion people gained access to bank accounts, enabled by changes to the international standards for anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing, set by the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
But 1.3 billion people remain excluded.
“Financial exclusion undermines economic development as countries progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” explained Professor Louis de Koker. “FATF standards shape financial laws in more than 200 jurisdictions. Their insensitive implementation can stifle financial innovation and exclude regional populations and low-income individuals.”
Over two decades ago, Professor Louis de Koker identified FATF-related inclusion barriers. With development economists and groups like the World Bank-based Consultative Group to Assist the Poor he has been researching policy solutions and advocating reforms.
This research has helped to shape FATF’s inclusion-related standards and guidance since 2011.
Professor de Koker’s research has now also informed FATF’s enhanced financial inclusion guidance, which was adopted in June 2025. Joint papers with La Trobe Law School’s Pompeu Casanovas on drivers of overcompliance and with Nicholas Morris and Sue Jaffer on de-banking in the Pacific were also cited.
“The inclusion targets that remain are the toughest. The enhanced guidance support innovative solutions to reach those who remained excluded,” he says.
