The trend that has characterized the indicators of access to banking products, since 2011, in the Dominican Republic has been positive, as stated by the Central Bank in its Open Page Forum: “Vision of the Central Bank on the banking process in the Dominican Republic ”.
When considering some publications in the national media that refer to the reduction in the levels of holding bank accounts in the country, based on information from the World Bank in its FINDEX 2021 survey, analysts from the Department of Financial Regulation and Stability state that in Instead of comparing the data of this survey in its latest installments (2017 and 2021), its first installment in 2011 is adopted as a starting point, “you can more clearly appreciate the progress of the country in terms of financial inclusion, when observing that the holding of bank accounts in regulated entities in the Dominican Republic has increased from 38.2% in 2011 to 51.3% in 2021”.
They add in their analysis that financial activity, measured in 2021 by financial depth indicators, suggests that assets, loans and public deposits continue to grow in proportion to the country’s economic activity, which has had a high level of growth.
They explain that, at the end of 2021, the Dominican financial system already had 5,043 bank sub-agents and in the case of payment instruments, the volume of operations with cards, checks and electronic transfers already reached the figure of 483 million operations, plus three times the value of 2011. Likewise, he points out that Internet banking users totaled 5.6 million, four times more than the number observed for 2014.
Explanation
Regarding the decrease of 4.9 percentage points in the holding of bank accounts reflected in the FINDEX 2021 survey, the Central Bank highlights that the country’s data was collected from August 1 to 30, 2021, a time when the labor market was still affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It refers that the three main sociodemographic categories with the greatest reduction are young people, with a drop of 9.2 percentage points, people with a level of secondary education or more, who register a decrease of 7.9 percentage points, and people with higher incomes, therefore that, the BC affirms that the reduction in the holding of bank accounts observed in the FINDEX may be a short-term phenomenon.