This is the fourth article in the Real World Outcomes series, examining the ways in which the companies invested in by the Jupiter Global Leaders strategy help deliver for planet, people and profit. The strategy focuses on long term structural opportunities that offer attractive capital growth opportunity.
In a previous article we highlighted affordability challenges currently being faced across the broad spectrum of household income. In this article we look at another structural trend that relates to companies enabling greater economic participation: financial inclusion.
The World Bank describes financial inclusion as giving individuals and businesses access to appropriate and affordable financial products and services, that are delivered in a responsible way1. The global challenge remains significant; the same organisation calculated that in 2024 approximately 1.3 billion people were ‘unbanked ’2, a term that refers to people who do not have a savings account, checking account nor credit card, and are therefore excluded from earning interest, receiving or sending digital payments, or having access to credit.
In the same report, the World Bank calculated that 79% of adults have an account at a bank, mobile money provider or both, having grown significantly from 51% in 2011. There are indications of structural improvement across economic income brackets. However, significant disparity remains between high income economies and low income economies at nearly 50 percentage points.
% of adults with a bank account, mobile money or both
Source: World Bank Findex Database3
Issues of financial inclusion do not just relate to individuals. Small businesses represent over 90% of businesses worldwide, and in emerging economies create $2.50 out of every $5 in GDP. They are also responsible for over 70% of global employment4. Here too there is a significant issue of access to finance in emerging and developing economies with 40% of micro, small and medium sized businesses credit constrained and the funding gap estimated to be $5.7 trillion by the IFC - the equivalent of 19% of those economies’ GDP5. Addressing this can have a very meaningful impact on economic growth and development.
The economic benefits of improving financial inclusion
Access to financial services comes with a wide range of benefits for the individual and the wider economy. In a review of data and evidence on the link between financial inclusion and economic development, the World Bank highlights that increased financial account access is associated with reductions in poverty, increased consumption and productivity, higher levels of investment in preventative health and higher levels of savings6. By having better access to savings accounts, insurance products and credit, financially included individuals should be more resilient to periods of economic shocks. Other research has found that financial inclusion consistently correlates with economic growth, although the extent of the effect is dependent on a number of key variables including income groups, regions and level of economic fragility7.
As a demonstration of the breadth of economic outcomes that financial inclusion is relevant to, the UN assesses that financial inclusion is related to targets in eight of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals,8 meaning that improving financial inclusion plays a meaningful role in supporting a more equitable and sustainable economic future for us all.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 20269 also cites ‘Inequality’ as a key economic risk on both a short term and long term basis. Interestingly, we see that economic fragility has come into greater focus, with asset bubble, economic downturn, inflation all increasing in concern. Section 2.4 in the report discusses issues that we have long raised in the context of affordability of debt, in the face of waning consumer confidence and heightened economic conflict which risks increased volatility.
In the rest of this article we will examine some specific case studies of companies that are contributing to financial inclusion, all of which represent current holdings in the Jupiter Global Leaders strategy. Please note that all such company examples are for illustrative purposes only and are not a recommendation to buy or sell.
Digital technologies are a key enabler
A key driver of the improvement in financial inclusion over the last decade has been access to digital financial services. A significant aspect of this has been the growth of mobile money accounts, enabled by the rapid growth of mobile phone ownership globally which now sits at 86% of all adults, although smartphones - which are key in enabling more sophisticated financial activity - are a smaller portion of handsets in some parts of the world2. In the chart below, mobile money accounts have been a major contributor to the increase in financial inclusion in low and middle income economies, which is also where the most significant increase in financial inclusion overall has been seen. More than half of all accounts in these economies are now digitally enabled for transactions through the use of a mobile phone or linking of credit and debit cards.
Adults with a mobile money account (%), low- and middle-income economies, 2014-2024
There are significant second order effects that flow from mobile money. For example, in just three years the percentage of adults in low and middle income economies that saved using a formal account grew from 24% in 2021 to 40% in 20242, driven by the use of mobile money and other digitally enabled accounts, helping to build financial resilience. The use of formal accounts and the transfer away from cash to digital payments also comes with security and anti-corruption benefits for both individuals and businesses, with digital payments enabling records of transactions and cash flows and enhanced personal security of not carrying physical cash.
Visa ($638bn market cap, c34k employees) and Mastercard ($478bn market cap, c35k employees) play a pivotal role in enabling this transition. The foundation of the growth opportunity for both companies is the conversion of payments from cash to digital globally, with Mastercard determining that still $11 trillion in consumer payments a year are undertaken in cash or by cheque10, around 20% of the total spend by transaction value. The number is even more significant if looking at the actual volume of transactions undertaken, with 1.5 trillion out of a total 2.4 trillion transactions still executed with cash and cheque11.
The opportunities here are global and not necessarily linked to economic development: for example, cash accounts for 60% of Japan’s daily transactions whereas in Kenya only 40% of transactions use cash12. While Japan’s GDP is over 30 times that of Kenya13, Kenya has seen a significant shift from cash to digital payments partly as a result of the growth of mobile money platform M-PESA operated by local company Safaricom – 45% of adults have an account at a bank or similar compared with 88% having a mobile money account in the country14.
Mastercard calculates that it has connected nearly 1 billion people to the digital economy between 2015 and 202415, adding 87 million in 2024, partnering across the payments chain including governments, banks, fintechs, telecommunications companies and development banks, in order to enable entry-level services and create solutions specifically designed for the unbanked. It also connected 65 million small and medium sized businesses between 2020 and 2024, also providing small businesses with finance and business tools to help them thrive and grow, and charge cards to help them manage expenses and cash flows. Visa has previously said that between 2015 and 2019 it helped 500 million people get access to a payment account for the first time 16, and continues to focus on digital access to finance for people and small businesses. For example, its partnership with the African Development Bank in the Côte d’Ivoire works to enhance digital identities as a gateway to banking and savings products. As part of this programme, Visa’s scale and reach has allowed it to issue nearly one million digital payment cards to farmers in the country17, and help provide subsidies and financing programmes to allow entrepreneurs to buy key tools for enabling digital finance such as smartphones, computers and point of sale terminals18. Both companies’ long-term growth and economic success is intimately tied to their ability to drive further access to the digital economy, increasing financial inclusion.
Intersection with broader economic inclusion
Financial inclusion continues to enable greater economic participation; progress has also been made in the proportion of inclusion between men and women, with a notable halving of the ten percentage point gap in low and middle income countries since 20113. However, we note this is an average, with some countries facing the opportunity for greater progress.
Globally, one in ten women lives in extreme poverty19. Increasing economic empowerment for women is associated with improved economic diversification and supports economic resilience, particularly in developing countries20. With workforce participation correlating with account ownership2, the economic opportunities for greater financial inclusion are significant; in 2023 analysis showed that closing the gender participation gap between men and women in the workforce and management in OECD countries could increase global GDP by $7 trillion21.
% of adults with accounts by gender
Source: World Bank Findex Database3
With high income economies are achieving close to parity in participation of bank accounts, there remains a structural opportunity in low and middle income economies to both increase participation and achieve parity for men and women. Here we see interesting developments within strategy holdings. For example, Itaú Unibanco ($80bn market cap, c.94k employees) has for over a decade run its Itaú Mulher Empreendedora programme in Brazil that offers business education and relationship networks to female entrepreneurs, as well as mentoring, training and other initiatives to help female entrepreneurs grow their businesses. Since its launch in 2013, the company calculates that the programme has reached over 850,000 women22. It also offers more focused programmes, again aimed at female entrepreneurs, including mentoring with executives from the bank and classes on topics such as strategic and financial management, marketing, sales and environmental impact.
Itaú also maintains financing programmes specifically targeted at female entrepreneurs. It has a target of reaching R$34.7bn in credit for companies led by women by 2030, and reached R$21bn in 2024. Among Itaú’s total microcredit programmes, which come with more affordable interest rates than other types of credit and business advice, 64% of the bank’s c.300,000 microcredit clients were female entrepreneurs in 2024. While the size of the loans is relatively small in the context of the company’s total loan book23, the real world outcomes in enhancing financial inclusion and helping women grow successful businesses are highly tangible.
More widely, Itaú has active programmes to encourage adoption of digital banking by offering complete digital accounts, free of charge, to the lower-income population in Brazil. In addition, these services come with savings features and increasingly access to credit. In 2024 Itaú had nearly 18 million clients using its essential services accounts, a significant impact for financial inclusion in the country.
Helping small businesses
Employee outcomes
It is not only the providers of financial services whose products and services help growth in small businesses that are so crucial to employment. Service providers can provide the crucial tools to enable small businesses to prosper, and in doing so enhance outcomes for their employees and support economic participation.
For example, strategy holding Automatic Data Processing ($103bn market cap, c67,000 employees) provides human resource services including payroll processing and benefits administration services, reaching clients in over 140 countries and operating the payroll for over 42 million employees24. Key to ADP’s services is its Professional Employer Organisation (PEO), which offers co-employment services to small and medium-sized businesses. In doing so, PEO clients are able to offer benefits such as health and life insurance and pensions savings of a similar kind to large organisations that they otherwise would be unlikely to be able to, providing better outcomes for their employees. ADP also offers smaller businesses access to human resource engagement, management and strategic tools that would otherwise be challenging to build with an internal HR department at small scale. A key enabler lies in the advanced data tools ADP has, which allows companies of all sizes to get better insights into pay gaps and how to address them as well as reduce biases in hiring and promotion and improve diversity, equity and inclusion. By playing a crucial role in helping small businesses provide high quality human resource practices, ADP helps them grow while also improving key outcomes of equality and economic success for their employees.
In addition, ADP provides essential tools for jobseekers. BrightJump is a free online tool to help people create CVs and provides career advice. CV tailoring technology help candidates in increasingly technology-driven recruitment processes, where for example AI tools can screen out prospective employees with no human intervention. In doing so, these processes risk perpetuating or even aggravating economic exclusion of those who lack the skills to address these technological developments. In the first half of 2025, BrightJump saw registered users increase 20 times25.
Customer outcomes
Given the significance of small businesses to the global economy, we see many opportunities for companies to support individuals in growing their small businesses and contribute to economic growth.
For example, strategy holding Sherwin Williams ($86bn market cap, c64k employees) has a store network of c4,700 physical stores, which are structured to support consumers, professional decorators including independents and small businesses. For professionals, Sherwin Williams is particularly set up to help them grow their businesses by helping to improve their commerciality and allowing contractors to spend more time working and less time on logistics and administration. As well as discounted pricing, the company offers recommendations and free business tools to help them create marketing materials, develop project bids, invoices and order volumes - a meaningful enhancement for sole traders, helping them to professionalise their proposition and potential to grow their businesses.
They also offer free jobsite delivery with options for same day delivery, which management has determined can save a contractor one day a month in time26. This is rewarded with high levels of in store customer loyalty and ultimately market share gain.
Operational approach of companies
A company’s own internal approach can also bring transformational outcomes for financial and economic inclusion.
Our investment process places a strong emphasis on the positive outcomes of how companies operate. We see significant opportunities for companies to contribute to improving economic inclusion through their own operations by the way that they approach their employees, their supply chains and their customers. Often these benefits are closely related to operational excellence, helping to create efficiencies, support stability and build resilience for the business – demonstrating the strong opportunities at the intersection of people and profit.
Sharing business efficiencies with employees
In the previous note on how companies can contribute to affordability we discussed the business efficiencies at strategy holding Costco ($428bn market cap, c340k employees) which both support its ability to keep costs low for its customers and drive carbon efficiency at the retailer. Costco’s efficiencies mean that it generates around three times the sales per employee than the average of its peers27; core to its approach is sharing these benefits with its employees in support of the excellent customer experience that underpins the company’s strong economic profile.
Costco has a history of giving employees wage increases to account for inflation; the average hourly wage at Costco is over $32 per hour in the US28 and well ahead of the average living wage in the US of around $23 per hour29. In addition, most long-term hourly employees receive twice-yearly bonuses. Benefits are strong, including areas that can be lacking in the US such as affordable healthcare coverage and competitively paid sick and holiday leave. As a result, the company’s employee retention rates are high with over seven percent of employees having been at the company for over 25 years and a voluntary turnover rate of only 10%28, below the US average across all sectors despite the retail and wholesale industry overall having the highest turnover rate in the US30. By sharing the benefits of its efficiencies with its employees Costco supports the long-term economic strength of its business and returns for its shareowners.
Training to enable economic participation
Companies can also create significant opportunities for their employees by providing training and development programmes that give them skills that transform their earnings potential. We see this as creating meaningfully positive outcomes for economic inclusion and mobility.
One example that is notable is strategy holding Rollins ($31bn market cap, c20k employees) invests significantly in training new employees to deliver its market leading pest control services, driving very high customer retention rates and recurring revenues. Offering a clear and long-term career path at the company supported by extensive training. Rollins also has an active programme to hire US veterans to support them in careers once they have left the military; a significant priority in the US where surveys show that nearly 70% of veterans rate finding a job one the hardest challenges in transitioning to civilian life31 with one third of veterans being under-employed32.
Conclusion
The Global Leaders strategy aims to identify profitable, well capitalised companies capable of compounding growth over the long term. Tangible benefit is central to our investment thesis, and the companies discussed here contribute to the delivery of measurable, real-world improvements by broadening the base of financial inclusion and economic participation. The real world outcomes from greater economic participation cascade across outcomes, notably: a reduction in poverty, higher levels of investment in key structural areas such as preventative health and greater economic resilience with higher levels of savings.
We have a long term investment horizon, typically investing in companies for an average of ten years. investing in companies at the forefront of long term structural growth drivers that deliver positive, tangible, real world environmental and social outcomes.
Footnotes
1 World Bank - Financial Inclusion Overview
2 World Bank - The Global Findex 2025
3 World Bank - Global Findex Database
6World Bank - Financial Inclusion and Economic Development A Review of the Data and Evidence
8UN Capital Development Fund - Financial Inclusion and the SDGs
9World Economic Forum - Global Risks Report 2026
10 Mastercard - Investment Community Meeting slide deck
11 Mastercard - Investment Community Meeting slide deck
12Visual Capitalist - Ranked: Countries That Use the Most Cash in 2025
13Worldometer - GDP by Country (2025)
14World Bank - The Little Data Book on Financial Inclusion 2025
15Mastercard - Doing Well by Doing Good: 2024 Impact Report
16 Visa Economic Empowerment Institute - Building and Inclusive, Equitable Digital Economy
17Visa - 2024 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report
19UN Women - 1 in every 10 women in the world lives in extreme poverty
20IMF - Pursuing Women's Economic Empowerment
21Moody's Analytics - Close the Gender Gap to Unlock Productivity Gains
22Itaú Unibanco - ESG Report 2024
23In 2024 Itaú Unibanco’s total adjusted loan portfolio was R$1,359.1bn.
25ADP - Our Corporate Responsibility: Leadership by Design 2025
26Sherwin Williams - 2023 Financial Community Presentation transcript
27 Costco’s five year average retail sales per employee of $738,583 compares with the peer group average over the same period of $215,774.
28Costco - 2025 Annual Sustainability Report
29World Population Review - Living Wage by State 2026
30Mercer - Results of the 2025 US Turnover Surveys
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