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Mainstream adoption of digital financial products and services in El Salvador
By Eproint
A new report demonstrates the mainstream adoption of digital financial products and services across seven Latin American countries (El Salvador, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru) and the challenges that remain among those still excluded from the financial system.
“The State of Financial Inclusion post COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean: New Opportunities for the Payments Ecosystem” was conducted in partnership between MasterCard and the Americas Market Intelligence (AMI). Research took place between November 2022 and January 2023 and consisted of a review of data made available by governments and financial institutions, as well as in-depth interviews with 25 financial service providers and online surveys of 2,815 individuals within these seven markets.
It highlights that the use of cash for day-to-day expenses decreased in favor of digital payments methods, with consumers living in an era when cash is co-existing with digital payments methods. Specifically, El Salvador, which is known for being in earlier stages of digitization, had a 5% reduction in consumer’s use of cash.
The report also recommends that in markets with high levels of exclusion (such as El Salvador), governments should consider the successful cases of other markets in digitizing subsidies and promoting fintech.
Taking into account the current development of digital financial products in Latin America and El Salvador, intellectual property protection has a key role to help ensure that fintech companies can innovate and develop new products without fear of their IP being copied or stolen. This is especially important in markets with high levels of counterfeiting and piracy.
Governments should take steps to strengthen IP protection for fintech companies. This could include providing more resources for IP enforcement agencies, enacting stricter penalties for IP infringement, and raising awareness of the importance of IP among consumers and businesses.
Eproint
Whether your company is big or small, at Eproint you are our priority and we can take care of everything regarding legal processes to create and protect your brands, and provide you with an Intellectual Property strategy to achieve your goals.
In El Salvador, Practice Head Edy Guadalupe Portal is a partner at Eproint and has more than 25 years of experience in Intellectual Property. Since 1995, she has been recognized as the Salvadoran voice of Intellectual Property protection for always informing the IP community about changes to IP law and international treaties.
During her career, Mrs. Portal has helped numerous international law firms and in-house counsel with all facets of their IP matters in El Salvador and Central America. Her extensive practice includes work in trademarks, patents, industrial designs, utility models, copyrights, unfair competition, foreign investment, regulatory law/health registrations, licensing, franchising, appellations of origin, geographical indications, IP litigation, fashion law, new technologies, data privacy, cybersecurity, domain names, entertainment law, advertisement law, trade secrets, valuation of intangibles, and IP due diligence. She is also recognized for the great anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting results she has delivered for her clients. She also helps coordinate Latin America Intellectual Property Protection for the firm.