On 27th July, the Argentinian government passed Resolution 121-E/2017 creating the Financial Inclusion Coordinating Council (Council), which will be part of the Finance Ministry. Argentina joins the list of countries such as Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, Peru and Mexico that are all committed to significantly increasing financial inclusion.

Purpose

The Council, whose composition and operations will be duly regulated, must design and implement a financial inclusion strategy in the country and develop policies to achieve universal access to financial and banking services. These policies may be short, medium or long-term and will facilitate effective universal access to these services.

The roles of the Council

The Council’s roles include: i) articulating participative processes among the various public and private players, ii) proposing plans to drive credit, microcredit and financial literacy, and iii) designing regulations that make it easier to implement the plans and programmes approved, ensuring that consumers’ rights are protected.

In addition, the Council will have to advise the Argentinian government on financial inclusion issues, and design databases on access to, use and quality of financial services in order to assess the progress made by the government’s programmes and plans. All this will help to promote a more efficient and transparent financial system that makes the most of leading-edge technology.