RBI's financial inclusion index shows growth across all segments, rises 4.3% in FY25

Improvement in FI-Index in FY 2025 is contributed by usage and quality dimensions, reflecting deepening of financial inclusion, and sustained financial literacy initiatives.

The Reserve Bank's FI-Index, which captures extent of financial inclusion in the country, rose 4.3 per cent during the year ending March 2025, the central bank said on Tuesday.

The RBI had constructed the composite Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index) in consultation with the concerned stakeholders, including the government. The annual index was first published in August 2021 for the fiscal ending March 2021.

"Index for the year ending March 2025 has since been compiled. The value of FI-Index for March 2025 stands at 67 vis-à-vis 64.2 in March 2024, with growth witnessed across all sub-indices, viz, access, usage and quality," RBI said in a release.

Improvement in FI-Index in FY 2025 is contributed by usage and quality dimensions, reflecting deepening of financial inclusion, and sustained financial literacy initiatives.

The FI-Index has been conceptualised as a comprehensive index incorporating details of banking, investments, insurance, postal, as well as the pension sector in consultation with government and respective sectoral regulators.

It captures information on various aspects of financial inclusion in a single value ranging between 0 and 100, where 0 represents complete financial exclusion and 100 indicates full financial inclusion.

The index comprises three broad parameters — Access (35 per cent), Usage (45 per cent), and Quality (20 per cent), with each of these consisting of various dimensions, which are computed based on a number of indicators.