Pandemic was opportunity to promote financial culture in Bolivia – bankers association

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Association of Private Banks of Bolivia (ASOBAN) highlighted that the banking sector “enjoys liquidity” and that the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has been an opportunity to promote initiatives related to social responsibility and financial education.

ASOBAN’s executive secretary Nelson Villalobos said that “the sector’s main financial indicators attest to its health,” that it “enjoys solidity” and that it continues to be “a fundamental pillar of the Bolivian economy.”

In this respect, he considers that the “internal management efficiency of institutions” has been crucial, despite the impact of the health crisis that “strongly affected the regular flow of income.”

“Despite experiencing a complex period, with high uncertainty about the future, banks’ commitment to the country’s reactivation is evident,” Villalobos said.

For this reason, together with ASOBAN the sector will continue to “implement prudential criteria to safeguard people’s savings, strengthen the payment culture and preserve the solvency and sustainability of the banking system,” he added.

ENCOURAGING ANALYSIS

As part of ASOBAN’s commitment to the country’s development, next Wednesday it will present the First Bolivian Economic and Financial Journalism Award to encourage the analysis and acknowledge the “challenge” faced by Bolivian journalism.

“Bolivian journalism faces tremendous challenges to ensure that the population has access to accurate and timely financial information, enabling them to deepen their knowledge about the financial system in general and the banking system in particular,” Villalobos said.

Thus, this award was created to “encourage the deepening of journalistic analysis on issues related to the banking system,” he noted.

Bolivian journalists who cover economic and banking information in the country will be eligible for the First Bolivian Economic and Financial Journalism Award provided they comply with the requirements established in the rules, which will be available on ASOBAN’s web page as of Wednesday.

SUSTAINABLE FINANCES

ASOBAN’s strategies in these pandemic times are mainly focused on “social responsibility and financial education.”

Banking has focused on the “healthy financial intermediation of savings towards the activities of families and businesses, advances in digitalization and access with an impact on financial inclusion,” Villalobos said about the efforts to enable Bolivians “to adapt and move forward.”

Likewise, Villalobos said that “the pandemic has also been an opportunity to deepen the use of digital services” such as the advances in “online and mobile banking over the past year.”

Finally, Villalobos explained that along with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), ASOBAN is promoting a strategy “to develop a sustainable finance program” to “promote social and environmental investments in Bolivia within the framework of the Millennium Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”