Читать книгу The Political Economy of the BRICS Countries - Группа авторов - Страница 94

Out-of-the-box ideas have been employed by several countries in order to increase banking penetration in un- and under-served areas, often leading to very encouraging results.

In Chile, for instance, supermarket chains have started writing credit histories for their unbanked clients, by means of extending small store credit, which can be expanded based on positive repayment records and which can then translate into broader access to credit. This is financial empowerment in action — especially when combined with consumer protection measures and financial education for preventing over-indebtedness.

In Brazil, lottery kiosks, pharmacies, supermarkets, and other retailers are used as business correspondents for banks. Upon launching Bolsa Familia, a conditional cash transfer programmer in 2003, the government determined that all benefits would be paid through Caixa Econômica Federal, Brazil’s public sector bank. However, as many beneficiaries lived in remote areas, without access to banking services, Caixa Econômica had to transport cash for the distribution of monthly benefits at very high costs. Therefore, Caixa started employing correspondents in municipalities where the costs of distribution were particularly high and started to administer the sales of Brazil’s wide-ranging lottery program. This led to a large network of small lottery stores called Lotéricas that began accepting bill payments and the distribution of social transfer payments besides offering additional financial services from Caixa. In many areas, as many as 55% of the households pay their bills through these lottery shops.

In South Africa, television and radio have been used for the delivery of financial literacy training. One such project, involved the distribution of financial inclusion storylines through a popular soap opera called Scandal!. The program was aimed at enhancing knowledge, attitudes, and behavior for making sound financial decisions, with a focus on debt management. An impact evaluation of the soap opera showed that its audience exhibited content-specific improvement of financial knowledge, a greater affinity for formal borrowing, reduced use of hire-purchase deals, and reduced inclination for gambling (World Bank, 2013).

Early on in the process, it was recognized that the process of financial inclusion would need to be buttressed with demand-side measures in order to gain traction. In this context, financial literacy emerged as a crucial cog-in-the-wheel in promoting universal financial inclusion and ensuring consumer protection.

A two-pronged approach has been adopted in this regard. First, efforts have been directed towards dissemination of simple messages of financial prudence in vernacular languages. To this end, the Reserve Bank website created a link for financial education, containing material in several vernacular languages, messages on financial planning, games on financial education, and a link for accessing the Banking Ombudsman Scheme for customer grievance redressal. In addition, tailored financial literacy content for target groups have been developed that can be used by financial literacy trainers. Second, a National Strategy for Financial Education was enunciated for the medium term. Besides establishing initial contact with adults and educating them on key saving, protection, and investment-related products, it has also been engaging with curriculum-setting bodies to embed such concepts in the school curriculum.

Despite these measures, large sections of the population continue to remain financially excluded. Although these measures resulted in impressive gains in rural outreach and volume of credit, the structure suffered from weak governance. It was ‘quantitatively impressive but qualitatively weak’. The main reason was that, due to the target-driven approach to social banking, these initiatives were not seamlessly integrated into the business strategy of individual banks. Later in the analysis, we take a closer look at certain demand-side considerations.