Credicorp’s Financial Inclusion Index highlights Chile as the only country in the region where cash is not the predominant means of payment. The report states that 47% of Chileans have reached an advanced level of financial inclusion.
Credicorp launched the fourth edition of its Financial Inclusion Index (IIF in Spanish), which showed a positive trend in the region for the fourth year in a row, especially in Chile.
According to the study, commissioned to Ipsos and released by Diario Financiero, 28% of the Latin American adult population reached an advanced level of financial inclusion, which represents a considerable increase compared to 25% in 2023 and 16% in 2021.
The annual study involved the participation of more than 13,000 respondents from eight Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Peru.
Chile leads regional ranking
For the first time, Chile scored the highest in the region. On a scale of 0 to 100, the country scored 58.3, up one point from 2023. Panama ranked second with 56 points, followed by Argentina with 54.4.
The IIF showed that 47% of Chileans are at an advanced level of financial inclusion, compared to 38% in 2023. Meanwhile, 40% of the population continues to make progress towards better financial inclusion.
«The indicator in which Chile shows the greatest strength is the ‘monthly frequency of use of financial products and services.’ An average Chilean uses these services 21 times a month, while the regional average is 8 times,» according to the statement.
Likewise, the document indicated that «Chile shows growth in the proportion of citizens who indicate savings, growing from 30% in 2023 to 41% in 2024.»
In terms of access to the country’s financial system, the IIF recorded a decrease in the number of barriers to the use of financial infrastructure and an increase in the number of credit products held in the financial system.
Chile ranked as the country with the best use of the financial system in Latin America, where 90% of people over 18 years of age were debit card holders. This high penetration explains why, unlike in the rest of the region, alternatives to digital wallets have not gained more ground.
«This is noteworthy, as the use of debit cards to pay for products and services exceeds the levels of cash usage in Chile. This is not the case with any other country in the region. Only 7% of the Chilean population indicates that they receive their income in cash,» claimed the document, which added that 70% of the Chilean population receives their income in an account in their own name.
In terms of the dimension of quality perceived by users, Chile showed a level of trust in the financial system above the regional average. In 2024, 46% of Chileans indicated that they trust the country’s financial institutions, eight percentage points above the result of the previous measurement.
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