Mexico’s Incoming Government Sees Fintech as a Path to Greater Financial Inclusion

In Mexico, where only one-third of adults currently have bank accounts, senior officials are looking to fintech companies and banks to increase participation in the financial system, according to a story in Reuters.

In its general election at the beginning of June, Mexico’s voters chose Andrés Manuel López Obrador as the country’s next leader, set to take office on December 1. A leftist, the new President has made spreading wealth one of his top priorities.

In an interview for the Reuters article, Arturo Herrera, one of two future deputy finance ministers under the forthcoming administration, listed financial inclusion among the obstacles that the incoming government will have to tackle if it is to address poverty, inequality, and slow economic growth. He said that overcoming these challenges will require the participation of fintech companies as well as the banking system.

“We 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,” Herrera said.

He listed both telecommunications companies and convenience stores as other stakeholders that will play a part in this infrastructure effort. Digital banking services, too, could play a major role.

“The next step is to speak to the commercial banking sector to understand what characteristics would help them consider this as a profitable segment or one that could become profitable in the future,” he said.