Empowering women through financial inclusion

By Yuridia Torres.

Once a week Edith leaves her home to collect payments from the sales she makes through catalogs, she moves from one neighborhood to another to receive payments ranging from 100 to 500 pesos, she spends on fares and sometimes on meals. Edith is 57 years old and has no bank account, she is not interested, she says she does not know the procedures to do so, she feels safer with her money and believes she manages it better.

Despite the pandemic, despite asking us not to leave the house, Edith had to do it. She needed to collect the money from her sales even though many people asked her to pay by bank transfer.

Paty is a domestic worker, she is 47 years old and has never had a bank account. The payments she receives for her work are in cash; she has already lost count of the times she has lost her weekly salary, once at the supermarket, once on the subway, once more she thinks it fell out of her purse. He also refuses to open an account,

"he doesn't have time to go to the bank".

Edith and Paty belong to the more than 21 million women who do not have a bank account in Mexico, according to data from the National Financial Inclusion Survey (ENIF) 2021. It is estimated that only 43% of women in the country have or have had a deposit account, says the ENIF 2021.

Both are unaware of the facilities that are currently available to have a financial product of this type. Something that for many women is of daily use and indispensable,

for Edith and Paty is not essential.

A bank account allows you to keep your money safe, to manage your finances in a different way, to make savings without having them at home under the temptation of using them at every moment or with the insecurity of someone taking them.

It also empowers women by giving them the opportunity to access other financial products and services, such as formal savings tools, options for investing their money and the opportunity to acquire credit.

Technology is currently advancing in favor of financial inclusion and opening a bank account is becoming easier and easier. From your cell phone and in a matter of minutes you can have a product of this type that does not charge commissions or require a minimum balance. These are digital accounts that can be opened in a bank or in a non-bank entity such as financial technology companies, the famous fintech companies.

What is needed is to download the mobile app of the bank or fintech where you want to open the account and register personal data, you will be asked to add a photo of your INE, and take a selfie and ready, in less than 15 minutes you will have a digital bank account where you can receive deposits, make transfers, pay for services, save, invest and make history to obtain a credit card.

Some of the banking institutions that have this product are: BBVA, Banorte, Santander, Azteca, Coppel; from the fintech sector you can open a digital account for deposits and other transactions in Albo, Doopla, MercadoPago, DIDI and Spin de OXXO, to mention a few.

Monthly deposit limits vary depending on the company but range from 5,646 pesos to 200,000 pesos.

With banks, a digital account works almost the same as any deposit account, however, some have a minimum monthly deposit limit of 3,000 UDIS, which is around 22,770 pesos. If you wish to increase this amount, you can do the process from the bank's app or by going to a branch.

The advantage of opening an account of this type with a bank is that these institutions have deposit insurance that protects your money for up to three million pesos in case of bank closure or bankruptcy.

Edith and Paty are five clicks away on their cell phones from having a bank account, from better protecting their money, from avoiding transfers to get paid, from exposing themselves to theft and, above all, from having the opportunity to learn about other easy-to-use financial tools that encourage them to give power to their money through savings and investments. There are, for example, platforms where you can start investing from 100 pesos with returns between 10 and 13% per year.

The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.

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