The holding company presented its first study on the link between informality and financial inclusion, with information on this topic for Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Argentina.
Credicorp, a Peruvian financial services holding company , presented for the first time the study called "Informality and Financial Inclusion in Latin America", which was developed in eight countries in the region.
This research shows that, in Peru, only 17% of informal workers are at the achieved (advanced) level of financial inclusion, compared to 50% of formal workers. Furthermore, only 10% of people who do not work (unemployed) have achieved this level of inclusion.
That is, in terms of financial inclusion, the Peruvian unemployed are almost at the same level as informal workers.
Peru is the second country in the region with the widest gap in financial inclusion between formal and informal, with a difference of 33 percentage points.
Chile surpasses it, with a 34 percentage point gap. Due to the size of the working population of each country, the percentages in the case of Peru are much more significant.
The situation in Peru is particularly striking due to the country's high rate of labor informality: 69%, counting only the employed population. Along with Bolivia, it is the country with the highest percentage.
"There is an inversely proportional relationship between the rate of labor informality in a country and financial inclusion: the more financial inclusion, the less labor informality, and vice versa. Financial digitalization is strong in both labor groups (formal and informal), and I believe that It is the route we must follow to boost the level of financial inclusion in the country," explained Javier Ichazo, Leader of the Microfinance Business Line of Credicorp and CEO of Mibanco.
When analyzing the ownership of credit products, it is observed that 12% of Peruvian informal workers accessed business loans between June 2022 and July 2023 (date measured by the study), above the 8% of the Latin American average.
Personal loans (15%) are the product that informal workers have in contrast to vehicle loans, the least obtained (11%).
Mobile wallets are the most popular savings product among informal workers in Peru, representing 44%, followed by the debit card (30%) and the savings account (26%).
Regarding savings, 72% of informal workers state that, between June 2022 and July 2023, they did not save, compared to 50% of formal workers.
It should be noted that Peru is the country in the region with the highest percentage of formal workers saving within the financial system (39%).
Financial digitalization in Peru is strong in both labor groups (formal and informal). The percentage of workers who receive their income in cash is already surpassed by those who do so digitally.
In the case of informal workers, the proportion that receives their income in cash is 27%, while those who receive it through bank transfers (to an account in their name) or mobile wallets is 30%.
Among the formal ones there is a more significant difference: 10% receive their income through cash and 72% do so through transfers or mobile wallets.
“In a country where 98% indicate that they use cash to pay for products and services, the fact that digital ways to receive income already surpass physical ones is positive,” said Ichazo.
ADDITIONAL DATA ON THE FINDINGS IN PERU
- The insurance products that informal workers have are life insurance (4%), vehicle insurance (4%), private health insurance (2%) and housing insurance (1%).
- 37% of formal workers have a positive opinion about financial institutions, in contrast to only 21% of those who work informally.
ABOUT CREDICORP AND FINANCIAL INCLUSION
Between 2020 and 2023, Credicorp included 4.1 million people in the formal financial system, which means progress towards our goal of reaching 6 million by the end of 2025.
This was achieved mainly thanks to the work of Yape, BCP and Mibanco, which managed to bank 63,600 clients, of which 56% were women.
Furthermore, BCP and Yape have managed to become one of the main drivers of financial inclusion in Peru. In 2023 alone, the group will help 1.5 million people who are part of the formal financial system.
During 2023, more than 27,000 microenterprises located in regions and rural areas joined Yape, especially in districts outside regional capitals, with 60% of them run by women entrepreneurs.
