Locally focused banks such as the member banks of WSBI – the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute – have an important role to play in the stability of the financial system at national and international levels. Locally focused banks support the real economy, primarily through lending to small and medium-sized enterprises and private households. They provide their customers with financial services. Locally focused banks have the necessary in-depth market and customer knowledge and the required customer proximity to combine security and dynamism, reliability and competitiveness. They represent a diversity of business models and market proximity via decentralised structures. In this way, locally focused banks can provide an effective and granular distribution of risks in an internationally connected economy.
It is essential that the decisions and initiatives of the Argentinian presidency of the G20 take sufficient account of locally focused institutions. This primarily includes:
- strengthening access to traditional bank financing for small and medium sized businesses;
- implementing targeted regulation, oriented towards a bank's business model, size and risk;
- promoting models of financial inclusion and financial education.