The study drawn up by the Banking, Insurance and Pension-Fund Supervisor (SBS) and Swiss Cooperation (SECO), analyses the status of financial inclusion in the country. The survey was targeted at people aged between 18 and 70, living permanently within the national territory, using a sample of 6,565 people distributed over urban and rural areas in the 24 departments into which the country is divided and the Constitutional Province of Callao.

The survey aimed to help “identify the specifications of potential demand for integrated financial services and estimate the level of financial culture, barriers to access and use of financial services, and provide a more detailed diagnosis of financial inclusion in the country,” according to Socorro Heysen, the head of the SBS, when presenting the document.

It analyses several aspects, including the following:

• Degree of knowledge regarding touchpoints with the financial system in rural and urban areas.
• Principal payment systems used, and use of alternative means of payment.
• Level of savings in the population, whether banked or unbanked and, more specifically, the savings for old age
• Access to funding and loans from the financial system.