On March 21st, 2018, as part of its 2018 presidency, Argentina hosted the G20 Conference “G20 and Locally Focused Banks – Good for Sustainable Societies” organized by the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI). Esteban Pérez from ECLAC’s Financing for Development Unit, who is currently carrying out a project on financial inclusion of SMEs and development bank innovation policies, participated in “Panel 2: Building a Financial Business Ecosystem in the Digital Age” that is summarized below.
“In the current state of development, demographic change and digitisation are two driving forces of change. Locally focused banks are no strangers to these forces. Accessibility, usability, affordability and sustainability are still challenges for access to finance even in the digital age. Technology and innovative approaches to finance have dramatically improved these challenges. Another issue is SMEs access to finance as in most cases they rarely have enough collateral. Machine learning and AI, as well as Fintechs, are proving to be great allies in this framework. Digitisation is also helping to address informality and to insert MSMEs into the formal system, whilst providing better security for their assets. Governments are moving towards digital invoicing that can also foster financial and social inclusion. The objective of this panel is to discuss enabling ecosystems for financial inclusion and access to finance in the digitised world and the roles of different stakeholders.” Source: World Bank Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI)
