Improving Access to Financial Services in Latin America

On Tuesday--at a CGD event-- the Latin American Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee released a statement (pdf) of recommendations for improving access to financial markets throughout Latin America.The guiding principles of the initiatives recommended by the Committee are to improve, expand, and create banking services in an environment of macroeconomic stability, sound regulation and effective competition. A complementary principle is to ensure that private and public banks be treated equally from the regulatory and supervisory perspectives with some exceptions in the case of microfinance institutions. The recommendations are classified as those that create markets, those that facilitate the expansion of profitable financial activities, and those that contribute to the expansion of the demand for financial services.