The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will grant financing to the country in order to continue with the improvement of the official statistics published by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC, for its acronym in Spanish) and to support a program of transparency, integrity and corruption control.

The projects financed by the IDB are part of the joint work between the international organization and the Ministry of Finance, which main purpose is to make progress in terms of transparency of the information gathered by INDEC and in the fight against corruption.

For the first initiative, USD 50 million will be used for the improvement of official statistics, increasing their credibility. The IDB project aims at promoting the use of the information by the National Government, the citizenship and the private sector.

This way, the gap between provisional and final economic indicators will narrow, reducing the non-answer rate in surveys by sampling, increasing the coverage of the economic and housing censuses and reducing the time between the conduction of the survey and the publication of the results. In order to achieve it, new technologies, methodologies and statistical infrastructure will be applied to improve the information production process.

Likewise, activities will be financed to strengthen INDEC’s institutional capacity, as well as activities to promote transparency and access to information, update sociodemographic and economic statistical databases and improve the coordination between INDEC and the other organizations belonging to the National Statistical System.

For the Support to Transparency and Integrity Reforms Program USD 200 million were obtained. The initiative is part of the National Government’s decision to strengthen standards in line with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The implementation of this agenda foresees key reforms in the access to public information and the ethical conduct of public officials; the management of resources in works, recruitment and Government personnel; and the management of the financial sector.

In order to strengthen transparency, the project establishes actions for the management of public resources in terms of public work recruitment and public employment, in particular through the implementation of the electronic management system for Recruitment and Concessions for Public Work, CONTRATAR and the implementation and execution of a comprehensive system for the management and administration of personnel (Human Resources Administration System – SARHA).

Actions to increase effectiveness of the financial system and to reduce transaction costs will be also implemented, thus strengthening financial transparency based on the adoption of measures that go in line with FATF and international rules and regulations regarding financial information.

August 3, 2017

The development of the new tools to promote mortgage credit was the main item on the agenda at the meeting held this afternoon by the Minister of Finance, Luis Caputo, and the Secretary of Financial Services, Leandro Cuccioli, with the Presidents of Banco Nacion, Javier Gonzalez Fraga, Banco Provincia, Juan Curuchet and Banco Ciudad, Javier Ortiz Batalla.

During the meeting, the Ministry of Finance’s team and the public banks representatives analyzed the mortgage credit progress and studied the challenges to overcome in order to satisfy the boom of the demand.

August 2, 2017

The Minister of Finance, Luis Caputo, met this afternoon with the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the U.K., Philip Hammond. The Chief of Cabinet of the Ministry of Finance, Pablo Quirno; the Secretary of Finance, Santiago Bausili; the Secretary of Financial Services, Leandro Cuccioli; and the President of the Financial Information Unit (UIF, for its acronym in Spanish), Mariano Federici, also attended the meeting.

During said meeting, both officials talked about the intention of British enterprises to participate in the infrastructure investment through the Public-Private Participation (PPP) scheme.

In that sense, Caputo said: “This meeting is taking place in a new Argentina, which is regaining its position at the international scenario and which offers big investment opportunities for the development of its infrastructure”.

Hammond and Caputo talked about the importance of preventive actions against money laundering and financing of terrorism developed by the Financial Information Unit (UIF).

In addition, they mentioned the possibility of having their insurance market regulators cooperating with each other.

The Ministry of Finance’s team explained to the British delegation the efforts done by the Argentine Insurance Authority to update regulatory practices in the insurance sector and highlighted the importance of the information exchange with the U.K.

Before the meeting, both officials attended the working lunch offered by Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Faurie at which the Minister of Treasury, Nicolas Dujovne, was also present.

During the afternoon, the officials of the Ministry of Finance participated in a working meeting with British businessmen at Palacio San Martín. There, the Chief of Cabinet, Pablo Quirno, talked about initiatives of Public-Private Participation projects; the Secretary of Finance, Santiago Bausili, talked about the financial program of the country; and the Director of the Argentine Insurance Authority, Juan Pazo and the Vice-director, Guillermo Plate, talked about the investment opportunities offered by the insurance sector.

President Mauricio Macri receiving the British Minister marks a historic moment: it is the first visit to Argentina by a U.K. cabinet member since 1993. The meeting is part of the new bilateral relation evidenced in a joint statement signed by both Governments in September 2016.

The Minister of Finance signed the resolution No. 2017-121, to be published tomorrow in the Official Gazette, for the creation of the Council of Financial Inclusion Coordination, which main role will be to create and implement policies of universal access to banking and financial services.

The Council shall be headed by Finance Minister Luis Caputo and will comprise officials of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Treasury and the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic. In addition, a consultation body will be created and it will comprise Ministers of different Ministries of the National Executive branch.

“This Council will encourage financial inclusion in our country, it will fight economic informality, it will increase the benefits of banking services for every citizen and it will reduce the interest rate for the most vulnerable sectors that need the support of the Government’s public policies”, the Minister of Finance Luis Caputo said.

The main roles of the Council will be the following:

– The coordination of the design of short, medium and long-term public policies aimed at the promotion of universal access to banking and financial services.

– The articulation of the participation processes among the different public and private actors and the integration of actions to favor financial inclusion in the planning of the different sectors and/or systems.

– The proposal of specific plans and programs aimed at developing the stimulus for credit and microcredit and financial education.

– The elaboration of a regulatory framework project that enables the implementation of the programs and plan throughout the country, which guarantees its access and the protection of consumers’ rights.

– The assistance to the NATIONAL EXECUTIVE BRANCH in all matters related to the implementation of financial inclusion public policies.

– The proposal of actions which encourage the financial services consumer’s protection, the expansion of digital finance and the financing of SMEs.

– The design of data bases of access, use and quality of the financial services which enable to prove the progress of the programs and plans intended by the NATIONAL EXECUTIVE BRANCH.

The beginning of the Council’s activities show the willingness of the Government of President Mauricio Macri to develop a public policy aimed at the financial inclusion of the most vulnerable sectors, as Minister Luis Caputo said to the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development, the Queen of the Netherlands.