Over 1.5 million Peruvians to receive bank accounts so they can access government social benefits

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Peru’s Banco de la Nación plans to introduce into the banking system more than 1.5 million people who currently do not have an account in any bank, so that they can access the Yanapay voucher, a subsidy of approximately US$85 per person recently launched by the government of President Pedro Castillo for families living in poverty.

According to the deputy manager of Banco de la Nación, Marco Silva, the beneficiaries of this aid must activate a basic digital account that allows them to receive monetary subsidies and withdraw them at ATMs or transfer them to a digital wallet.

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This is also expected to avoid repeating the long lines and crowds of people that occurred last year due to the delivery of other previous bonds distributed during the confinement, which became focal points of contagion in the first wave of covid-19, reported Efe.

“The process is straightforward. We are going to help citizens so that they can download and activate their accounts,” Silva commented in statements to the official Andean agency.

The Banco de la Nación official guaranteed the system’s security, with no possibility of impersonation since the bank account is linked to the identity card and a telephone number associated with the same document.

Silva also explained that they plan to start activating the accounts from October 25 in a progressive manner to avoid overloading the system.

In total, there are more than 13.5 million recipients of the Yanapay voucher, which will involve a public expenditure of 4,725 million soles (about US$1.15 billion).

The voucher began to be delivered on September 13 to the first group of beneficiaries, corresponding to people already registered in the Ministry of Development and Inclusion (Midis).