The Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador published an update on financial inclusion citing the World Bank’s Global Findex 2025, which reports that 43% of Salvadorans aged 15 and over have an account at a financial institution or similar. The central bank notes this places El Salvador second among Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, and represents a 12 percentage point increase from the 2021 reading (31%). The update links the increase to policy coordination through the National Council for Financial Inclusion and Education (CNIEF), created in 2019 and coordinated by the central bank with ten participating institutions, alongside legal, regulatory and payments infrastructure measures. It references the March 2021 National Financial Inclusion Policy and the Financial Inclusion Facilitation Law (Legislative Decree No. 72) and subsequent amendments, including provisions to regulate electronic money, simplify account opening for low-income and rural customers, remove minimum opening deposits for simplified savings accounts, and embed financial education. It also highlights standards issued through the central bank’s committee of norms to support interoperability, efficiency and security in financial services and to obtain data from financial institutions to measure inclusion and gender gaps, as well as the Transfer365 instant payments platform (including Transfer365 Móvil, Transfer365 Business and Transfer365 CA-RD) and the “Mi Viaje Financiero” financial education initiative, which it says has reached more than 34,000 students.

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