Financial inclusion, microfinance, and financial education in Latin America

Alejandro Javier Micco Aguayo and Patricio Andrés Valenzuela Aros

Chapter 17 in Handbook of Microfinance, Financial Inclusion and Development, 2023, pp 316-338 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter takes stock of the current state of financial inclusion in Latin America and discusses recent developments including innovations, branch expansions, and banks’ use of agent networks to further extend their reach. On the one hand, the chapter documents that Latin America has made substantial progress in terms of inclusion thanks to cases that have demonstrated the importance of strategies targeting households and firms previously ignored by traditional banks. On the other hand, the chapter emphasizes that important barriers to financial inclusion persist, with several countries in the region exhibiting within-country gaps and gaps to not only the advanced economies but also other peer developing ones. Technological innovation is playing a crucial role closing the gaps that currently characterize the region. Finally, the chapter suggests that to develop a stable financial system with responsible consumers, the ongoing progress in inclusion needs to go together with financial education.

Keywords: Development Studies; Economics and Finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781789903874/9781789903874.00026.xml (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:19107_17

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com
sales@e-elgar.co.uk

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Darrel McCalla (darrel@e-elgar.co.uk).