Chile’s Ministry of Finance has launched the country’s first National Financial Inclusion Strategy, developed through the Financial Inclusion Advisory Commission, setting out a roadmap to expand access to and the responsible use of quality financial and pension products and services to improve citizens’ financial wellbeing, with an emphasis on prioritised groups. The strategy is based on a diagnosis that Chile has favourable access levels, particularly for cash-management products such as CuentaRUT, but sees scope to improve access, use and quality across payments, savings, credit and insurance. It organises the agenda around four objectives: strengthening trust through better public understanding, improved information and faster complaint handling; addressing infrastructure gaps as bank branches and ATMs decline and are unevenly distributed, including by improving digital user experience, interoperability and in-person service channels; improving consumer protection and transparency while promoting product offerings that better match real needs, including by strengthening everyday cash-management use, promoting responsible financing and savings, and widening insurance access; and tailoring measures to underserved segments, including improving investment and insurance access for women, reinforcing savings and responsible financing for young people, expanding financing access for older people, strengthening financial capabilities for lower-income groups, and improving microenterprise access to finance. The Financial Market Commission, alongside the Central Bank and the National Consumer Service, provided technical support to the work and launched its own institutional strategy alongside the ENIF to mobilise public, private and civil-society actors around suitable and accessible financial products and services.

Original source Back to tracker