Projects Officer - STAFI; Contractual

Work for the IMF. Work for the World.

The IMF’s Statistics Department (STA) is seeking a Projects/Data Officer to join its Financial Institutions Division (STAFI), with a focus on the Financial Access workstream, including the Financial Access Survey (FAS) database. This is a one-year contractual position with the possibility of extension for up to four years. The division works closely with other Fund departments on analytical, policy, and operational activities to support the IMF’s bilateral, multilateral, and financial sector surveillance.

STA provides global leadership in macroeconomic and financial statistics methodologies and standards for the IMF, its member countries, and the broader international statistical community. It works closely with other Fund departments, donors, and external partners to meet data needs for surveillance and lending. STA supports these activities through capacity development aimed at strengthening countries’ statistical capacity to produce and disseminate statistics for sound policy analysis and effective policy making.

STAFI operationalizes the IMF’s role as the global standard setter for the Financial Access Survey (FAS), alongside Monetary and Financial Statistics (MFS) and Financial Soundness Indicators (FSIs), by developing and updating internationally agreed methodologies that ensure high-quality, consistent, and cross-country comparable data. It leads the development, maintenance, and dissemination of the global FAS database, which supports analysis of global financial inclusion.

STAFI also manages STA’s capacity development program for the FAS, providing technical assistance and training to IMF member countries worldwide, while contributing to broader updates of international statistical methodologies on emerging financial sector issues and to related STA and IMF initiatives.

The FAS provides a unique supply-side database on access to and use of financial services, covering more than 190 economies, with over 120 series and historical data dating back to 2004. The FAS dataset includes both traditional and non-traditional financial services data. Selected series are disaggregated by type of financial service provider, type of customer (e.g., households and SMEs), gender and income group.

These cross-country comparable statistics help policymakers and financial institutions identify gaps in financial inclusion, design targeted interventions, and monitor progress toward enhancing access to and use of financial services. The statistics are sourced from financial sector authorities.

The successful candidate will contribute to STAFI’s work on data management and analysis, statistical methodology, and capacity development for the FAS aimed at implementing the division’s work program. The selected candidate will work under the general supervision and guidance of STAFI management.

More specifically, the selected candidate will be involved in the following activities within STAFI’s work program:

• Under the supervision of senior staff, assist in data management, data analysis, and chart preparation for the maintenance and development of the annual FAS rounds and provide advice on methodological aspects.
• Maintain, enhance, and disseminate the FAS data, including contributing to the survey’s revamp—with a focus on frontier issues such as consumer protection, competition, merchant payments, fintech, and financial health—to strengthen financial sector and macro-financial surveillance.
• Contribute to STAFI’s capacity development program for the FAS, including training and technical assistance.
• Support other Fund departments in multilateral and bilateral surveillance through methodological advice, data provision, capacity development, and analytical work.
• Contribute to the division’s analytical work agenda, including data management, development of charts, and support for data analysis, to further STA’s objectives and showcase STA databases or use them for evidence-based policy making.
• Contribute to work on the G20’s Data Gaps Initiative 3, with a focus on fintech-enabled financial inclusion.
• Participate in other divisional/departmental activities as…