MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s next government will look to fintech companies and large corporate banks to increase financial inclusion in the country, where only one-third of adults have a bank account, senior officials said.
Arturo Herrera, one of two future deputy finance ministers, said in an interview that the lack of financial inclusion was one of the biggest obstacles in the new government’s fight against poverty, inequality and slow economic growth, Brinkwire reported.
President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is scheduled to take office on Dec. 1, has made spreading the wealth more evenly a priority of his administration, Brinkwire noted.
Herrera said fintechs, commercial and government-controlled banks all had a part to play in improving access to financial products and services, arguing that a “lack of depth” in the sector was hampering progress.
“We will still have to create, or help create, a basic infrastructure that enables transactions between people or between people and financial institutions in some of the most rural, most disconnected areas of the country,” he said.
Telecommunications companies and convenience stores would be consulted to help build such infrastructure, he said.
His said his team was also examining how to develop digital banking services, and could revisit Mexico’s fintech law in a bid to improve financial inclusion, Brinkwire noted.