For the ninth consecutive year, Peru topped The Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Microscope 2016, an index and study on countries' enabling environment for financial inclusion, the Peruvian Bank Association (Asbanc) reported.
Such result was driven to a great extent by the use of Billetera Movil (BIM), a mobile payments platform launched to the public last February.
The Global Microscope's latest edition describes said platform as "the first of its kind as it includes all significant players in the financial system, and customers can transact across phone companies."
The Inca nation ranked first at the report with 89 points out of 100, tied with Colombia.
Peru also led 7 out of the 12 indicators for the index: regulatory and supervisory capacity for financial inclusion, regulation and supervision of credit portfolios, regulation of insurance for low-income populations, regulation and supervision of branches and agents, credit-reporting systems, market-conduct rules and grievance redress and operation of dispute-resolution mechanisms.
The only indicator in which the Andean country does not rank among the top ten is regulation and supervision of deposit-taking activities.
In this respect, Asbanc suggests facing structural difficulties slowing down progress, such as the high informality rate, significant levels of rural poverty, low financial literacy, among others.
The private-run institution also proposes that the government and private sector should work together so all Peruvians have access to the formal financial system.
(END) RGP/JJN/DHT/MVB