The year 2021 closed with the positioning of grocery stores as the type of commerce with the largest number of operational banking sub-agents (SAB), with a total of 649 establishments nationwide, official figures indicate.
These are followed by pharmacies (511 by 2021) and supermarkets (604 by 2021). Seen in a general sense, last year a total of 2,016 operational bank sub-agent establishments operated, with a large concentration in the Metropolitan region (755 SAB) and in the North region (661 SAB) and a lower concentration in the South regions. (332 SAB) and East (268 SAB).
According to the Report “Banking Subagents 2022”, of the Superintendence of Banks (SB), banking subagents are establishments, such as grocery stores, supermarkets, pharmacies, commercial establishments, among others, that support financial inclusion and bankarization of the population, extending financial services throughout the national territory, especially in those regions with low penetration of bank branches.
This model of banking subagents in the Dominican Republic was adopted in 2014 to facilitate access to financial services to the greatest number of people.
The most used operations in the territory are cash and/or check deposits, followed by cash withdrawals, cash and/or check payments, and movement and balance queries.
At the end of 2021, the Dominican banking system had 2,016 operational SAB establishments (40.2% of the total registered SABs) and showed a reduction of 87 establishments (4.1%) compared to the previous year. This year-on-year reduction in the number of operational SAB establishments has remained constant since 2017, a period in which it reached the maximum point of 2,915 operational establishments.
Despite the reduction in the number of operational SAB establishments, according to the Superintendence of Banks, the amounts traded by said sub-agents show a constant increase since the implementation of the SABs, reaching RD$66 billion traded by 2021. This data suggests that operational SABs could be achieving higher levels of efficiency by taking advantage of economies of scale and scope.
Despite the fact that the operational SAB establishments reached their peak in 2017 and have presented a constant decrease in the following years, the number of transactions, as well as the amount transacted, have remained in constant growth, registering a total of 15 million operations by the year 2021.
This means that its use has continued to grow despite the decrease in the number of SAB establishments operating. The data could suggest that economies of scale and scope are exploited (higher levels of efficiency and depth of use), and that, in addition, the operational sub-agents consolidate the levels of trust on the part of the public.
Consultation of movement until balances and withdrawals
Banking subagents can perform different types of operations, such as: movement and balance inquiries, deposits, withdrawals, payments, receive remittances, prepaid cards and send electronic transfers. For the year 2021, these operations reached an amount of 15 million, resulting in deposits and payments in cash and/or check being the most used operations by users for that same year. The distribution in the use of the type of operations remains similar in the metropolitan, northern and eastern regions.
