Countries
Argentinia, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
Local project partners
Argentina: Bancor, Banco Provincia, ADEBA, BCRA, MINEDUC
Bolivia: FinRural, ATC
Ecuador: UCACSUR, SEPS, ISTEPS
Colombia: ASOMICROFINANZAS, ASOBANCARIA, Banco de Bogotá, Bancompartir
Peru: Banco de la Nación (BN), FEPCMAC, ASOMIF, SBS, Copeme, Zegel IPAE
German project partner
Ostdeutscher Sparkassenverband (OSV) (East German Savings Banks Association)
Donor
German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Duration
01.01.2018 - 30.09.2023
The regional project in South America has the same goals as the regional project in Central America.
About half of the Latin American population has an account at a formal financial institution, but only about 14 % of the population uses it to save. At the same time, over-indebtedness has been perceived as one of the biggest risks for many years.
Financial institutions can best counter the risk of over-indebtedness with well-trained advisors who, for example, pay attention to responsible lending processes and the promotion of savings products. By promoting their member institutions, banking-associations can do their part in professionalizing them and therefore help to stabilize the financial sector.
On the consumer side, the promotion of financial literacy is essential to raise awareness in an often credit-oriented culture to only take out loans that can be serviced. Financial literacy is also essential in making informed decisions about what credit terms are appropriate.
The overall objective of the project is to improve sustainable access to financial services by strengthening educational and associational structures. This will be achieved through the following four priorities:
- introduction of the dual education system to train specialists in the (micro-) financial sector
- establishing and expanding the range of training courses and consulting of partner institutions
- strengthening microfinance associations as representatives and service providers for microfinance institutions
- improving the level of basic financial education of the population
Project Tasks
- Introduction of dual vocational training
- Development and implementation of advanced training programs for technical and managerial staff, including training of local trainers as multipliers
- Improving the structure and range of services offered by partner associations, positioning partner associations as strong stakeholders
- Raising awareness of financial education e.g. with MFIs, associations, consumer protection institutions, government agencies, etc. in all project countries
- Training of multipliers for financial education and training of target groups (children, youth, women as heads of families, small (micro)enterprises, indigenous people etc.)
