(Expansion) – It seems that we have already passed the most complicated part of the pandemic and hopefully most of the people will be vaccinated in the following months to avoid a major outbreak towards the end of the year.
After Sunday’s elections we must continue working so that with unity and not with polarization we can get out of the economic crisis. Although we are going to have a rebound in 2021, it will be important to lay the foundations so that we can grow steadily in the following years.
One of the fundamental issues to have a better country is to increase financial inclusion, it is a shared objective between this government and the financial sector due to its social impact. However, improving inclusion poses a number of challenges.
Mexico has been promoting greater financial inclusion for many years. For this reason, we are already going through the accelerated growth stage and progress is expected to be more limited in the future.
It is important to understand the stage of the process in which we are in order to design adequate public policies. Also, the history of aggregated data may be different from that of micro data. The latter must be studied to be more effective.
In Mexico there is an important inclusion gap that is related to the characteristics of each state and localities. Inclusion is greater in states with greater economic development and in larger localities.
Regarding the minimum inclusion, it is interesting how even the states with a lower level have a percentage of the population included above 50%. We find that the product that makes several of the states with the lowest level have more inclusion is the savings product.
In the credit product, there is more variance and a lower level of inclusion. It is explained because granting credit needs people to request it and implies a risk in granting it. However, the gap between the states is very high: 38.6 percentage points. Sinaloa has 54.8% compared to Chiapas 16.2%
Understanding the evolution of the inclusion of a savings, credit or insurance product to more products allows us to evaluate the quality of inclusion in Mexico.
The product by which people commonly start their relationship with the formal financial sector is savings. Of those that have two products, the pairs that have more participation are those that include savings.
People who have three products are a minority, with 22% of the population being analyzed and 13.5% of the total population. This indicates that broad financial inclusion is limited in Mexico.
The objective of the National Financial Inclusion Plan is to improve financial inclusion measured by having a product going from 68% to 77% by 2024. I see this objective as limited. International experiences define that adequate inclusion, in addition to tenure, includes use and meeting all financial needs. Mexico focuses only on tenure and a need.
The use of cash in Mexico is widespread. In the country, the states that use the least cash for purchases of less than 500 pesos are at a level of 89% and those that use the most at 98%. The above changes little for larger purchases.
It is important to prioritize financial inclusion because it is a way in which millions of people can have more options to manage their family or business resources. One of the most important public policies in which banks can support the Government is that more people have access to more financial products and that they use them on a daily basis.
Editor’s note: Jorge Sánchez Tello is director of the Applied Research Program of the Foundation for Financial Studies (FUNDEF). Follow him on and on. Opinions in this article are the sole responsibility of the author.
