Nicaragua Diagnostic Review of Consumer Protection in Financial Services : Volume 2. Comparison with Good Practices

World Bank

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: financial literacy;    access to finance;    financial consumer protection;    non-bank financial institutions;    insurance;   

RP-ID  :  112702

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

In 2010, over 92 percent of the assetsin the Nicaraguan financial system were concentrated in thebanking sector, while microfinance managed over 5 percent,and all the remaining segments covered less than 3 percent.Starting in the late 1990s and until 2007, the microfinancesector in Nicaragua has expanded robustly at 20 percentaverage annual growth rate and has been a significant factorof economic growth, particularly in the agricultural smalland medium enterprise (SME) sector. The 2008 financialcrisis led to a rapid deterioration of the microfinancecredit portfolio and the microfinance lending contracted bynearly 20 percent in 2009. While partly this was due tospiking interest rates, over indebtedness and slowingdemand, research has shown that inadequate consumerprotection and low financial literacy in the microfinancesector also played a role. In order to improve Nicaraguanconsumers’ confidence in their financial institutions, thisWorld Bank’s diagnostic review presents strengtheningconsumer protection in five key areas. Volume I of thereview summarizes the key findings and recommendations andvolume II provides a detailed assessment of the Nicaraguanconsumer protection institutional, legal, and regulatoryframework compared to the good practices for three financialsegments, namely banking, nonbank credit institutions, andinsurance. Volume II also includes an annex that analyzesthe results of a field research with financial consumers in Nicaragua.