U.S. Treasurer to Launch Latin America Initiative
with Visits to Mexico and Central America
July 24, 2007

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U.S. Treasurer Anna Escobedo Cabral will travel to El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico this week, where she will launch the Treasury Department's initiative to provide Latin Americans with better access to banks and other basic financial services. Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. discussed his goal of improving the availability of basic financial services in the region in a June speech at the Americas Competitiveness Forum.

The vast majority of the Latin American population functions exclusively in a cash and barter economy.  More than 70 percent of the residents of most Latin American economies do not use basic financial services such as deposit and transaction accounts, according to World Bank estimates.

Treasurer Cabral will meet with representatives from the public, private and non-profit sectors in each country and host a series of public discussions focused on ways to give more Latin Americans access to basic financial services. This visit is in advance of the Latin America Regional Conference, which Secretary Paulson announced last month and Treasurer Cabral will host this fall.