About FinData
FinData is the World Bank Group’s new dataset for measuring financial development worldwide. It brings together traditional banking and capital market indicators with measures of digital finance and financial inclusion, reflecting changes in financial systems. Updated annually and spanning up to 218 economies with data extending back to 1980, FinData also provides composite indices that make it easier to track and compare financial development across economies and over time. FinData was created to address gaps in financial sector data and capture developments in financial systems. For nearly two decades, the World Bank’s Global Financial Development Database served as a major cross-economy reference on financial systems, but it stopped being updated in 2022. Meanwhile, digital finance and mobile money were expanding rapidly, private capital markets were growing in importance, and sustainable finance was gaining attention. FinData carries forward that database’s established framework while extending it to reflect these developments.
The Framework at a Glance
FinData uses a 4 × 4 framework: four segments of the financial system, each assessed along four dimensions. Banks and non-bank financial institutions form the financial institutions pillar; equity and debt markets form the financial markets pillar. The four dimensions are depth, access, efficiency, and stability. This structure supports 34 core indicators and a set of composite indices, including an overall measure of financial development, allowing users to compare economies and track changes over time on a consistent scale.
Our Approach
FinData is built to be transparent and reproducible. Every indicator is checked for quality, every adjustment to the underlying data is documented, and the full construction of the indices is independently reviewed. FinData uses simple, equal weighted averages to construct its indices, making aggregation transparent and easy to interpret.
Intended Users
FinData is intended for policymakers, financial sector practitioners, researchers, and analysts who need a reliable, comparable view of financial system development — whether examining a single economy’s progress or benchmarking financial systems across regions and income groups.