O M AR KH AN 1. 2. Introduction -Madame Chair, Madame International Expert, Distinguished Guests and Participants -Thank for the opportunity to attend this important forum and to offer this presentation -My name is Omar Khan and I work at the Runnymede Trust, a thinktank in London focusing on race equality. -We are also one of over 700 member organsations of the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), and wrote their response to the European Commission’s Consultation on access to banking -My presentation is therefore focused mainly on Europe and financial inclusion among ethnic minorities in the Global North, but I will indicate where I think my presentation applies to minorities in the Glboal South, for whom financial inclusion is equally important. Definition Financial Inclusion is typically defined as access to and take up of appropriate financial products and services. These include Banking Savings Credit Insurance Advice Expanded conception: social inclusion and social justice -However, financial inclusion more than simply having financial products or a bank card. Rather, it is important for social inclusion and participation in social and economic life more generally -Without access to banking, we cannot take advantage of more secure means of managing money, and may keep cash in our homes, under the bed or in a safe -Without access to saving, we cannot plan for our future or our children’s future, or buffer again shocks -Without access to credit, we cannot build up our businesses, or even out the ups and downs in our incomes -Ethnic minority women may even rely on their husbands on access to the above products and services, meaning that they are less capable of being economically independent -In sum, financial inclusion is a crucial means of wider social inclusion and participation. Those who are fully included often feel more confident and respected, as evidence in the UK has shown for former prisoners. 3. Why this expanded conception? -Financial institutions work on the basis that those who are more disadvantaged are more risky customers, and more likely to default. They are thereby denied access to certain products, or pay more for those products, as is the case for subprime lending. 4.