World Bank and the Foundation Team Up to Improve Financial Data Collection | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

WASHINGTON–The World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today launched a new effort to better understand how the world’s poor save, borrow and make payments. Through an $11 million, 10-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank’s Development Research Group will, for the first time, build a global database that allows researchers to measure and compare how individuals use bank accounts and other financial products – if they are available at all. The Gates Foundation provided the funds to cover three rounds of data collections, and the World Bank has already signed a contract for next year with Gallup, Inc., to interview at least 1,000 people per country in 150 countries about their finances through the Gallup World Poll.

To read the full press release, visit the World Bank web site.