Banking on Technology for Financial Inclusion

Abstract

Almost everyone in advanced economies has a bank account—90 percent of households to be more precise. But it isn’t that way everywhere in the world. In the average Latin American and Caribbean country, only 35 percent of households have a bank account.¹ Meanwhile, firms in the region consistently point to problems accessing credit as a major obstacle to their development. According to the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (World Bank, 2010b), Latin American enterprises rank access to credit third on a list of constraints to their growth, behind high informal employment and political instability.