RBI's Financial Inclusion Index increased by 64.2% in March 2024

The FI-Index is a composite index, which encapsulates three core parameters: access, usage, and quality.

Where access carries a weightage of 35 percent and assesses how easily one can receive financial services, usage carries the weightage of 45 percent and assesses how often and to what extent people avail these services. Now, with regard to quality, it carries a weightage of only 20% as a whole. Here, it also focuses on the variables for financial literacy, consumer protection, and service quality.

Of these, each parameter is again subdivided into sub-dimensions calculated by various indices.

In an announcement made this year in 2021, the RBI reiterated the collaborative development of the FI-Index with the government and sectoral regulators.

It draws on banking, investment, insurance, postal services, and even the pension sector. The index goes beyond simple accessibility to include user experience and service quality. It is in this light that there is relevant introduction by the RBI of a unique set of qualitative criteria through the FI-Index, which assesses parameters like financial literacy, consumer protection, and probable inequity and weak points in the delivery of service.