The Minister of Finance, Luis Caputo, gave a speech at the Foromic Panel “Financial Inclusion and the Digital Revolution” together with Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer at Monetary Authority of Singapore. “Financial inclusion represents equal opportunities and there is no possibility of sustained growth over time without financial inclusion”, Caputo said.

At the event, the Finance Minister highlighted the role of financial inclusion in the integration of more and more citizens to the formal system and the measures to provide more opportunities to families and SMEs. “The Argentine Government has a State policy to expand financial inclusion throughout the country”, he added.

Regarding the initiatives promoted by the Government, Caputo highlighted the creation of the Financial Inclusion Council and he said it will “drive the policies implemented by different Ministries” and that “it will enable the delimitation of financial inclusion initiatives throughout the country”.

“Argentina has adopted high-impact measures such as the synchronization of payment methods and the effective use of the PIM, an electronic wallet launched by Banco Nacion”, Mr. Minister explained, making reference to the system which already has 333,000 users and 25,000 participating stores, according to the bank data. In addition, the Finance Minister highlighted the digitalization of payment methods and the development of more banking correspondents.

Likewise, Caputo insisted on the policies developed by the Central Bank such as free-of-charge savings accounts and the simplification of the requirements to open an account. In this sense, he said that currently, “approximately the 50% of Argentinians doesn’t have a bank account” and that “the use of debit cards is also low compared with other countries of the region”. For this reason, Mr. Minister explained that “those exclusions are part of our debt to society and they constitute an obstacle for an equitable and competitive growth”.

Finally, the Minister of Finance highlighted the work done to establish better financing conditions to extend credit to every sector, in particular to SMEs and entrepreneurs. This way, Caputo said that “through the capital market we want to generate better terms and rates for SMEs”.

Moreno said that “FOROMIN has always been focused on the development of financial systems that work for everybody” and that “now the countries are facing the common challenge of financial digitalization and how to regulate new actors such as Fintech”. Mohanty said that “financial inclusion must improve people’s lives” and he talked about the policies implemented in Singapore. “The digital national identity is an important asset for inclusion and thus, digital inclusion is essential”, he added.

FOROMIC is organized by the Multilateral Investment Fund (FOMIN) of the IDB Group, supported by the Ministry of Finance. It is the most important annual event on microfinance and entrepreneurship in the region. It is a space for business and financial innovations and, in particular, a platform for microfinance that has demonstrated that serving low-income households and small businesses is possible, sustainable and profitable.

The Minister of Finance, Luis Caputo, signed with the President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Luis Alberto Moreno, loans to invest a total of USD 550 million in sanitation, urban infrastructure and education.
USD 200 million will be aimed at the Programa de Desarrollo de los Servicios de Agua y Saneamiento del Plan Belgrano (Program to Develop Water and Sanitation Services of Belgrano Plan).

USD 250 million and a first individual loan of USD 100 million will be aimed at the Programa de Integración Urbana e Inclusión Social y Educativa (Program of Urban Integration and Social and Educational Inclusion) of the City of Buenos Aires. The Mayor of the City of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, also attended this agreement execution.

The objective of the Program to Develop Water and Sanitation Services is to increase the access to potable water and sanitation services, to improve the environmental conditions of sanitation and hygiene and to improve the operation and financing of service providers, in particular in the Provinces of the Belgrano Plan (aimed at the rehabilitation and extension of infrastructure in Tucuman, Salta, Misiones, Chaco, Corrientes, Santiago del Estero, La Rioja, Jujuy, Formosa and Chaco), improving the living conditions of 150,000 households.

The credit line for the Program of Urban Integration and Social and Educational Inclusion is aimed at increasing the social and urban social equity and integration of the City of Buenos Aires.

The improvement of the living conditions in Barrio 31 is one of the priorities of this investment. Resources will be allocated at the improvement of urban infrastructure and social equipment at the improvement of housing conditions in households and stores. The Program foresees the construction of an Education Center with 3 schools for 1,100 students in kindergarten and primary school and education for adults. In addition, a new building of the Ministry of Education will be built.

Another objective of this loan is to improve the education quality of the City extending the access to new education tools and strengthening the management and evaluation systems.

The following officials attended the execution of the agreements: the Minister of Finance; the Mayor of the City of Buenos Aires; the President of the IDB; the Chief of Cabinet of the City of Buenos Aires, Felipe Miguel; the Secretary General of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Fernando Straface; the Minister of Education of the City of Buenos Aires, Soledad Acuña; the Responsible of Barrio 31, Diego Fernandez; the Undersecretary of International and Institutional Relations of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Francisco Resnicoff; the President of the IDB for Argentina, Raul Novoa; and the Head of the Belgrano Plan, Carlos Vignolo.

Afterwards, with the presence of President Mauricio Macri, the opening ceremony of FOROMIC 2017 took place and the Minister of Finance, Luis Caputo, handed the Inter-American Award for Financial and Entrepreneurial Innovation of the category “Financial Service Providers” to the National Commission for the Pension System (CONSAR, for its acronym in Spanish) from Mexico. Carlos Marmolejo, Vice President of the Institution received the award.

The award recognizes the development and launching of “Afore Movil”, a mobile app that enables millions of Mexicans to keep track of their savings account for retirement. It also allows small enterprises and independent workers to open and manage their accounts.

October 13, 2017

The Minister of Finance, Luis Caputo, as Governor before the World Bank, participated in the “Human Capital Summit: Committing to Action to Drive Economic Growth”, one of the main events of the WB Annual Meetings, where world leaders commit themselves to adopt measures and drive economic growth.

After the keynote address given by Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank, Mr. Minister said: “We firmly believe that investing in human capital is key to improve people’s quality of life and wellbeing as it lays the foundation for innovation, competitiveness and growth” and he added: “we need to invest in human capital to gain competitiveness”.

“An educated, healthy and competitive labor force is a country’s most important asset to tackle the current challenges brought about by globalization and to respond to the citizenry demand for quality jobs”, Caputo explained.

In this sense, Mr. Minister talked about the recent launch of the Universal Social Insurance Plan which will provide coverage to 15 million people.

In addition, Caputo highlighted the importance of financial inclusion: “Financial inclusion is crucial to human capital development. We see it as a strategic tool to tackle the informal economy by expanding access to banking services and cutting interest rates for the most vulnerable segments of the population”, he said.

The Minister of Finance anticipated that human capital will be one of the main issues to address during Argentina’s G20 Presidency, specifically the future of labor.

Finally, Caputo highlighted that Argentina commits itself to invest in human capital and to guarantee that said investment yields its benefits. “In this regard, the World Bank Group has been a strategic partner in our pursuit for constant development, working closely in areas such as infrastructure, health, education and SMEs financing”, Mr. Minister said.

The following officials also attended the panel: the Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire, Amdou Gon Coulibaly; the Minister of Finance of Indonesia, Sry Mulyani Indrawati; the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, the Secretary of State for International Development of the UK, Priti Patel; the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Netherlands, Lilianne Ploumen; and the State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tone Skogen. The panel was moderated by BBC journalist Lerato Mbele.

During the whole day, Mr. Minister and his officials held meetings with investors and bank representatives.