CNBV Mexico’s quest for better data

AFI’s newest case study covers lessons learned from the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV)’s Access to Finance Unit, headed by Raul Hernandez-Coss, in its ongoing mandate to gather reliable financial inclusion data over a two year period.

The study, entitled “Measuring financial inclusion in Mexico: CNBV’s approach to obtaining better data for decision-makers” invites policymakers to consider the following questions facing the CNBV and discover how they were addressed

• Whether to prioritize the collection of financial inclusion data in the early stages of promoting financial inclusion?
• What is the role of a financial regulator in measuring financial inclusion?
• To what extent can existing data be used?
• What are the best incentives for financial institutions to report accurate financial inclusion data?

Upon the inception of CNBV’s Access to Finance Unit, the team’s main objective was to make accurate and useful data on financial inclusion in Mexico available which would then stimulate concrete actions in the marketplace and evidence based policy positions. The case study tracks the team’s journey starting with examining and improving existing data sets, engagement with commercial banks and other sectors of society about data, steps they took to incentivize improvements in reporting, and their future plans for expanding their metrics to include demand side data. The case features the experiences of Raul Hernandez-Coss is an AFI Policy Champion and Chair of AFI’s Financial Inclusion Data Working Group, and his team the Access to Finance Unit. CNBV is an active member of the network: President Guillermo Babatz is a member of the AFI Steering Committee, and the institution is co-host, along with Superintendencia de Banca, Seguros y AFP (SBS) del Peru, of the AFI Global Policy Forum 2011 in Riviera Maya, Mexico taking place this September.