The specter of economic uncertainty hangs over the world. In the midst of a context of high inflation and geopolitical conflicts, the financial habits of the population are evolving. Under this premise, EL PAÍS and Mercado Pago organized the fifth edition of the No Money Forum: The End of Cashmade up of experts from the economic, financial, technological and journalistic sectors.
“Discussion and knowledge about companies and their financial uses are essential,” said Jan Martínez Ahrens, director of EL PAÍS América, with whom the debate tables began. The first of them touched on a fundamental issue for Mexico and the countries of Latin America: financial inclusion.
According to data from the National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Users of Financial Services (Condusef), 97% of adults in Mexico, almost 77.6 million people have access to the financial system, but more than half of them , 56%, continue to use cash as their main means of payment.
Under the moderation of Sonia Corona, editor-in-chief of EL PAÍS México, Brian Siu, director of the platform fintech Jeeves for Latin America and Juan Carlos García Fierro, Coordinator of Supervision of Financial Institutions of the Technical Vice Presidency of the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) focused their debate on the capacity that financial institutions must have to provide security to users.
“With the pandemic, people have realized that there are more digital tools, and it is up to us to get them to them and make them trust these services,” García Fierro mentioned. “To support growth, the important thing is to create alliances such as fintechs to meet the needs of users,” said Siu, leader of this platform with a little more than two years of presence in the country.
In 2018, the CNBV published the Law to regulate Financial Technology Institutions, known as Fintech Law, with which new platforms are regulated under a regulatory framework that generates trust and inclusion for users. “Although there is resistance to change, new technologies are making their way, especially among new users,” said Siu.
To build trust for users to migrate away from the use of cash, cybersecurity plays a key role. Ivonne Muñoz, director of IT Lawyers and an expert in data protection, stressed the importance of institutions, but also financial institutions, safeguarding users’ personal data, starting with biometric data.
“The information belongs to the owners, each one has a name and we can collect them, but we do not own them,” he reflected. Establishing physical, administrative and technological measures to safeguard the data of each of the people immersed in the financial system, promotes its growth at the same time. The possible violation of personal data means the loss of digital identity, the expert concluded. “We are all digital citizens,” she reflected.
However, inclusion is not only financial, but gender. Aideé Zamorano, founder of Mama Godin, emphasized the lack of participation of women in the Mexican economy, since much is lost. According to data from the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), if the participation gap between men and women in the country were closed, 2,500 million pesos more would be obtained for the economy from tax collection. “Being a working mother in Mexico is a public problem, since the economic system is not going to change if the omissions that exist from homes are not corrected,” said the entrepreneur.
Technology, however, has improved the chances of including men and women to avoid the use of cash and thereby improve the nation’s formality and economic growth. Alexia Moreno, Manager of Marketing and Business Intelligence at IAB Mexico, emphasized the necessary conditions for digital payments to be successful. “Electronic purchases increased with the pandemic, but this does not mean that the physical experience will disappear, there are very clear categories that we must identify to promote growth,” the expert pointed out.
But the alternative means of payment in Mexico did not grow overnight. • Myriam Cosío Robles, Chief External Affairs Officer (CEAO) of the Clip payment platform, indicates that there is still a long way to go to get rid of cash. “It has many pros, but cash still has an insecure component, which is why digital payments are facilitators for business,” she mentioned. The possibility of offering offers, general history and traceability of payments are just some of the benefits for financial entities, especially for small and medium businesses that drive the economy of Mexico.
In our country, by the end of 2020, the number of banknotes and coins in circulation grew by 18.5%, despite initiatives such as CODI, efforts have not been enough. Pedro Rivas, General Director of Mercado Pago and Carlos Serrano, Chief Economist of BBVA Mexico discussed the possibilities of growth and doing business, as well as the benefits for the national economy, under the leadership of David Marcial Pérez, journalist from EL PAÍS Mexico .
“Every year we see that we are taking steps, although there is a long way to go, it is not just a matter of private initiative, but something in which we all collaborate,” said Mauricio Pallares, the person in charge of financial education at BBVAat the conclusion of the fifth edition of this forum, where the past was analyzed, the present of payment methods was evaluated and scenarios were imagined where cash is surpassed by technology and financial inclusion.
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