Melinda Gates Challenges Global Leaders: Create Savings Accounts and Bring Financial Security to the World's Poorest

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Heads of government, banking, technology, and international development gather for first-ever Global Savings Forum; foundation pledges $500 million and announces new grants to increase access to savings

SEATTLE, Nov. 16, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, today hailed a historic moment that will help bring financial services, particularly savings accounts, to hundreds of millions of people living on less than $2 a day. Speaking at the foundation-hosted Global Savings Forum in Seattle, the first global gathering focused on the role of savings in the developing world, Gates urged leaders in government, banking, mobile communications, and international development to work together to build a new kind of financial infrastructure to bring savings to the poor. She also pledged $500 million from the foundation over the next five years to expand savings.

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Melinda Gates Challenges Global Leaders: Create Savings Accounts and Bring Financial Security to the World's Poorest

"This is an amazing moment. The stage is set for incredible breakthroughs," Gates told nearly 200 influential world leaders who gathered for the two-day forum. "As last week's statement on savings by the G20 proves, financial inclusion is on the global agenda at the highest level. And innovations are happening so fast that, for the first time, the world has the opportunity to provide even the poorest people with access to financial servi...

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