Queen Máxima in Washington For Inclusive Finance

In her capacity of Special Advocate of the UN Secretary General for Inclusive Finance for Development, Her Majesty Queen Máxima was in Washington on October 7-8 to attend the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG).

On her first day, Friday October 7, the Queen was present at a panel at the World Bank headquarters. At the panel, entitled “Financial Inclusion not Exclusion: Managing De-Risking”, were presents, besides Queen Maxima, US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the Governor of the People’s Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, India’s Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley, Indonesia’s Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and Financial Action Task Force President Juan Manuel Vega-Serrano.

The discussion was focused on the progress made by the financial inclusion but also on the most important development goal that is the assurance that everyone has access to affordable financial services such as a bank or mobile money account.

Queen Máxima stated that between 2011 and 2014 about 700 million people were brought into the formal financial system but there are still 2 billion people cut off the system. All the participants stressed the importance to develop safe and effective services such as bank accounts, insurance, loans and easy payment options to help people who currently have no access to the financial sector.

Yesterday, Saturday October 8, Queen Máxima held the Duisenberg Lecture at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. The Duisenberg Lecture is an event that take place since 2004 during the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group and is organized by the Rabobank, a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company. The topic of the lecture was the inclusive finance.

During her visit in Washington Queen Máxima had several meetings with representatives of international financial institutions, governors of central banks and government representatives.

Queen Máxima delivers Duijsenberg lecture at Rabobank event, makes the case for direct link between financial inclusion & human development. pic.twitter.com/ZQPEsqSwgm

— Henne Schuwer (@henneschuwer) October 9, 2016

#Governor State Bank of Pakistan Ashraf Mahmood Wathra called on #Queen Maxima of Netherlands today pic.twitter.com/wFwxnAbYGo

— Pakistan Embassy, DC (@PakEmbassyDC) October 8, 2016

Filed under The Netherlands
Tagged Inclusive Finance, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, United Nations, United States of America, Working Visit.