Financial Inclusion: Policies and Challenges for People with Disability in Malaysia.

The Central Bank of Malaysia has introduced regulations and policies promoting equal rights for people with disability (PWD), including an inclusive banking system, through its Financial Sector Blueprint 2022-26 and, most recently, the Financial Inclusion Framework 2023-26. These aim to improve the standard of living and socioeconomic status of PWD especially as regards access to financial services. Nevertheless, current studies show that PWD's access to financial services is still limited. The article explores the challenges of promoting inclusivity financing amongst PWD in Malaysia using secondary data and semi-structured interviews with bank regulators and non-government organisations (NGOs). It finds that the barriers faced by banking institutions in delivering sound financial services to PWD relate to the high cost of infrastructure and facilities, default risks, barriers in communication and understanding, poor financial and product literacy, and a non-user-friendly digital banking system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]