La Inclusión Financiera: el caso de los países andinos con perspectiva de género

Abstract

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la inclusión financiera en los países andinos durante el periodo 2011-2017 con una perspectiva de género, resaltando la importancia que esta tiene en el desarrollo y bienestar de una economía. Para ello, en primer lugar se hace una descripción del concepto de inclusión financiera, las dimensiones que esta abarca, sus ventajas a nivel macro y microeconómico y los indicadores que se utilizan para medirla. Así como la gran importancia que ha tomado en los últimos años para grandes autoridades, organismos reguladores e instituciones financieras en el mundo. También, se muestran unas pequeñas pinceladas del contexto de inclusión financiera en el mundo y en la región de América Latina y el Caribe, centrándose fundamentalmente en la titularidad de cuentas de los diferentes grupos poblacionales. Más adelante, se realiza el análisis de los indicadores de inclusión financiera para describir la situación actual y su evolución reciente. En concreto, nos centramos en el estudio de los indicadores de acceso, uso y calidad en la región andina distinguiéndolos por género. A continuación, se muestran las razones que los no bancarizados indican por las que no poseen una cuenta y señalamos algunas medidas o estrategias para solucionar dichos problemas, haciendo especial hincapié en la educación financiera. Por último, se presentan las principales conclusiones que se han obtenido en este trabajo.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the financial inclusion in the Andean countries during the period 2011-2017, understanding the importance of the financial inclusion as a vehicle for the development and welfare of an economy. As well as the great importance that financial inclusion has taken in recent years for authorities, regulatory organisms and financial institutions in the world. In addition, whenever possible, the data are studied by gender, since Andean women, due to their sociocultural characteristics, show great differences in relation to men. First, a description of the concept of financial inclusion. From its definition, its multidimensional nature can be deduced, covering components of both the demand and the supply of financial products and services (access, use, quality and welfare) and the possible barriers that may arise in each component. The advantages at the microeconomic level are then indicated: greater access to credit for small businesses, a direct impact on reducing poverty, increasing well-being or empowering women through formal savings or insurance and the reduction of transaction costs and greater transparency of transactions originating from the digitalization of transactions. As well as the advantages at a macroeconomic level: higher educational and health levels are achieved, that is, a higher quality of life; increase of investments and productivity, increase of employment and reduction of inequalities and therefore of economic growth. Likewise, the indicators that are used to measure financial inclusion are defined, based on the Basic Set of financial inclusion indicators that were approved by the G20 and the GPFI. Also, some small note of the context of financial inclusion in the world and in the Latin American and Caribbean region are shown, focusing mainly on the ownership of accounts of the different population groups, at this point it can already be seen that despite the fact that adults access to the financial system has increased in recent years, there is still a large number of people outside the financial system and that these are focused mainly on developing economies, concentrate on large population sacks such as women, young people , and those with less education and income. Later on, the work begins to focus exclusively on the Andean region, with a small and previous description of economic and welfare data in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador 48 and Peru. The financial inclusion indicators are analysed to describe the current situation and its recent evolution. Specifically, we focus on the study of access, use and quality indicators in the Andean region, distinguishing them by gender. Regarding access, whether through access points to services, penetration of the Internet and mobile phones in homes or ownership of debit and credit cards, we see a positive evolution in all countries. We emphasise the importance that non-banking correspondents have had for such access and also a high preference of people for the use of traditional methods to withdraw cash. Regarding the use of financial services, the results of the statistics do not allow conclusions to be obtained from an advance in the use of financial services and products. The percentage of adults with bank accounts has increased, but approximately half of the population is outside the financial system. Saving in the region is low compared to economies with the same level of development and the proportion of formal savings is also low, even has decreased in recent years due to the economic crises of these countries. As in savings, the percentage of adults with credit has increased, but the main source of credit is still family or friends, that is, we find a high presence of informality. To finish with the indicators of use, we have that the digital means to make payments have increased but the Andeans are inclined by the use of cash. Likewise, indicators of quality in financial inclusion are analysed, specifically financial behavior, market behavior and consumer protection. In all these indicators analysed by gender, we find that women are below that of men and there are large gender gaps that have only been reduced in one of the four countries. Below are the reasons why the unbanked indicate that they do not have an account, the main ones being: insufficient money, very expensive financial services, lack of confidence in financial institutions or distance. And we indicate some measures or strategies to solve such problems or barriers, such as the use of technology, the existence of a public and private sector that is more active in achieving this end, the need for statistical data segregated by gender, but with special emphasis on financial education. Finally, the main conclusions that have been obtained in this work are presented