Brazil : Access to Financial Services
This study seeks to evaluate present levels of access to financial services, and government policies adopted which impact upon access. Based on these findings, it explores options for increased future access to financial services in Brazil. The fir...
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| Format: | Other Financial Sector Study |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2013
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/02/3044618/brazil-access-financial-services http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14599 |
| Summary: | This study seeks to evaluate present
levels of access to financial services, and government
policies adopted which impact upon access. Based on these
findings, it explores options for increased future access to
financial services in Brazil. The first section highlights
the core conclusions to emerge from the study, which would
have implications for government policy. The second section
provides a guide to the thematic scope, and content of the
study, and the third section describes the findings,
conclusions, and recommendations of each section. The
overarching message to emerge from this study is that
increased financial access would be promoted, by sound
overall macroeconomic, and financial sector policy. Beyond
that, the Government could, and should undertake regulatory
reforms to enable financial markets to function more
smoothly, and undertake targeted policies to improve access.
However, care should be taken to ensure that such targeted
policies allow the excluded groups efficient participation
in financial markets. This would direct the focus towards a
review of incentives, rather than public financing of
special programs. The study points to a series of factors
which affect volumes, and costs of financial intermediation.
It emphasizes that despite the absence of simple remedies,
there are a series of areas in which actions can be taken,
which together would help expand access, and lower its
costs. Findings in the study suggest that while Brazil is
not under-banked in terms of bank branch presence,
disparities however in financial access can be as
significant between neighborhoods within a city, as between
regions of the country. Nonetheless, initial measures
designed to expand access adopted over the last few years,
especially for the microfinance, and cooperative sectors,
and later for banking correspondents, were successful, and
pointed towards new modes of access to financial services.
One form of alternative measures to the traditional programs
include new instruments to offer possibilities for
market-based expansion of services. |
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