Digital wallets: Peru registers the second highest user growth among eight Latin American countries

The use of digital wallets has reflected a marked growth trend in terms of ownership and use. In the case of Peru, the growth in the number of users is positioned as the second strongest at the level of eight countries in the region. This is revealed by the recent Financial Inclusion Index prepared by Credicorp.

In its third edition, the report reveals that in our country, 45% of Peruvians have payment applications or mobile wallets. This is 12 percentage points more than last year. It is this increase that places Peru as the second with the highest growth, only surpassed by Colombia, where the growth was 15 percentage points. However, the percentage of users in Colombia that have mobile wallets and payment applications is the highest in the region: 61%.

On the other hand, 62% of Peruvians who have these wallets are classified as frequent users. That is, you use them constantly, several times a week or daily. This percentage increases by 13 percentage points compared to 2022.

Gianfranco Ferrari, CEO of Credicorp, highlighted the growing trend in the use of these payment methods. “Considering that a similar increase, in the field of digital wallets, occurred between 2021-2022, we can speak of a general trend in favor of these, since they have been on the rise for 3 consecutive years”he explained.

“We can say that digital wallets are already consolidated as one of the main drivers of financial inclusion in Peru and the region. To talk about the local case, they are already the preferred digital medium in purchases and services”

Gianfranco Ferrari, CEO of Credicorp

For Oswaldo Molina, executive director of the Development Studies Network (REDES), digital wallets open new spaces and opportunities for the informal world. “Informal people will use financial services to the extent that they are practical and convenient for them. And when you think about digital wallets, they are working. They allow small transactions at no cost. “Digitization is going to help close these gaps and that is a huge opportunity”he said during his participation in the Regional Meeting on Development and Financial Inclusion organized by Credicorp.

Carolina Trivelli, former Minister of Development and Social Inclusion – who also participated in the event – ​​considered that the main challenge is the transition from the use of the payment method to other products of the financial system. This makes financial inclusion sustainable.

“Today, when the means of access by definition will be payment methods, that is where we have the opportunities. The key is that the use of payment methods offers institutions information. “What entities must return are products according to the customer’s needs.”

Carolina Trivelli, former Minister of Development and Social Inclusion

For the construction of the Credicorp Financial Inclusion Index, three dimensions were considered: access, use and perceived quality of the financial system. In addition, a scale from 0 to 100 was defined, in which a higher score means a higher level of financial inclusion.

In this edition, Peru occupies sixth place in the ranking and climbs one position at the regional level, placing itself above Mexico and Bolivia. With a score of 43.3 out of 100 possible in the IIF, it is still below the average for the region (45.5). Regarding performance in the dimensions, access and use, they are those that present the best advances, registering an increase of 5 and 3.9 points, respectively. While for the perceived quality axis it is the one that shows the least growth.