The problem of financial exclusion—individuals’ limited access to, or use of, formal banking services—looms large. Governments and microfinance institutions have made some headway in alleviating exclusion, but banks have lacked a commercial impetus to do so, stifling the development of solutions that have the reach required to confront this problem. By embracing innovation, however, banks can upend the economics of reaching consumers long considered unserviceable, opening up opportunities for profitable expansion in the world’s most rapidly growing economies.

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