The population that speaks an indigenous language is the one that shows the lowest degrees of financial inclusion in the country, since less than 60% have or have had at least one product of this type. This figure is 18 percentage points lower than the national average.
The National Survey of Financial Inclusion (ENIF) 2021, released on Wednesday, details that the indigenous language-speaking population has a lower proportion of deposit products, formal credit and insurance, than the non-speaking population.
However, it clarifies that this low inclusion is not entirely attributable to communication difficulties, considering that the population included in the survey speaks Spanish.
According to the document, around 6% of the adult population in the country reports being a speaker of some indigenous language, and lives primarily in rural areas (76 percent).
More than half are concentrated in the southern region of the country, and most of them have primary education (56% of the total), which suggests that, in addition to presenting an educational gap, they also show lower income levels.
Lack of access to physical and digital channels
The survey details that of the total indigenous language speaking population in the country, 49% have an account; barely 26% have a formal credit and only 13% have some type of insurance.
It specifies that factors such as the lack of access to channels, both physical and digital, which are more prevalent both in rural locations and in the southern region of the country, could be playing an important role in this situation.
As an example, he mentions that the transfer to a branch takes 44 minutes for people who speak an indigenous language, that is, double the average transfer time.
In addition to this, the survey points out that only three out of 10 speakers of indigenous languages have Internet, when at the national level it is 69% of the population.
Less than 40% have a smartphone, against 73% in the country. “Situations that make it difficult to access the financial system through digital means.”
Little trust in institutions
The document prepared by the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) and the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), adds that another factor that could be affecting the financial inclusion of this segment of the population is their level of trust in the institutions.
The population that speaks an indigenous language reports less confidence that financial institutions would protect their personal data, resolve their complaints and claims, or that their money would be safe with them, in relation to non-speaking populations”, he exposes.
Likewise, only 15% of the population knows that their savings in financial institutions are protected by deposit insurance (against 33% nationally), and 62% do not know the proper channels to file a claim in the event of a problem with a product or service. (39% national), which could be contributing to a lower willingness to participate in the system.
The most widely spoken indigenous language was Nahuatl with around 1.6 million speakers, followed by Mayan with approximately 774,000 speakers.