Financial Inclusion in Latin America: Facts, Obstacles and Central Banks' Policy Issues

This paper shows that, in spite of recent progress in the usage of alternative financial services by adult populations, Latin America's financial inclusion gaps relative to either high-income countries or the region's comparators (countries with a similar degree of development) have not reduced generally and, in some cases, have even increased during the period 2011-2014. An econometric investigation of potential country-level obstacles explaining these gaps finds that institutional weaknesses play the most salient role through direct and indirect effects. Lack of enforcement of the rule of law directly reduces depositors' incentives to entrust their funds to formal financial institutions. Indirectly, low institutional quality reinforces the adverse effects of insufficient bank competition on financial inclusion.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Inter-American Development Bank
Other Authors:	Liliana Rojas-Suárez
Format:	Discussion Papers & Presentations biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	Inter-American Development Bank
Subjects:	Financial Inclusion, Financial Service, Financial System, Interest Rate, Central Bank Money, Access to Finance, Income Equality, G21 - Banks • Depository Institutions • Micro Finance Institutions • Mortgages, G28 - Government Policy and Regulation, mobile money;Latin America;central banks;financial inclusion;financial regulation,
Online Access:	http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0007016 https://publications.iadb.org/en/financial-inclusion-latin-america-facts-obstacles-and-central-banks-policy-issues
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