The Maya Declaration

Background

The Maya Declaration is broad in nature, focusing on: creating the right environment; implementing the correct framework; ensuring consumer protection measures are taken and using data to inform and track financial inclusion efforts. This declaration was made through the Alliance for Financial Inclusion network of regulatory institutions and although no vote was taken, the common principles have been implicitly adopted by all of the network's members.

17 of the institutions followed up on the declaration with very specific commitments for their national efforts. Superintendencia de Banca, Seguros y AFP (SBS) del Peru for example, committed to "enact a law regulating the use of electronic money and to increase correspondent cashiers from 30% to 50%". While the Comision Nacional Bancarias y de Valores (CNBV) Mexico committed to having "a banking agent or a banking branch in every municipality by 2014".

The specific nature of these and other commitments under the broad principles of the Maya Declaration have attracted the attention of other international organizations with an interest in financial inclusion including the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), GSMA, the World Bank, the G20 and Princess Máxima of the Netherlands in her capacity as UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development.

Riviera Maya Commitments (GPF 2011)

As of October 2013, there are 108 member institutions at AFI, all of which have adopted the Maya Declaration principles. The first adopters that announced specific Maya Declaration Commitments at the 2011 GPF include the following:

Cape Town Commitments (GPF 2012)

The 19 institutions which made specific Maya Declaration commitments during 2012 GPF include the following:

Central Bank of Armenia

Microcredit Regulatory Authority, Bangladesh

Ministry of Social Development, Chile

Ministry of Finance Colombia

Banque Centrale du Congo

Banco Central del Ecuador

Bank of Ghana

Superintendencia de Bancos de Guatemala

Bank Indonesia

Bank Negara Malaysia

Financial Regulatory Commission of Mongolia

Central Bank of Mozambique

Bank of Namibia

Palestine Monetary Authority

Banco Central del Paraguay

Ministry of Economy and Finance Senegal

Central Bank of Solomon Islands

Reserve Bank of Vanuatu

Kuala Lumpur Commitments (2013 GPF)

Maya Declaration Commitments at the 2013 GPF brought the number of institutional financial inclusion commitments to 45 overall. Commitments were announced by:

National Bank of the Republic of Belarus

Banco Central de Reserva de El Salvador and Superintendencia del Sistema Financiero de El Salvador (Joint Commitment)

Banque de la République d'Haïti

Central Bank of Liberia

Bank Al-Maghrib Morocco

Nepal Rastra Bank

Superintendencia de Bancos de Panamá

Bank of Papua New Guinea

Central Bank of Samoa

Bank of Sierra Leone

Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago

Full Text of Maya Declaration

Maya Declaration on Financial Inclusion We, the Members of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, a network of central banks, supervisors and other financial regulatory authorities met in Riviera Maya, Mexico, 28 to 30 September 2011, on the occasion of the Third AFI Global Policy Forum, Recognize the critical importance of financial inclusion to empowering and transforming the lives of all our people, especially the poor, its role in improving national and global financial stability and integrity and its essential contribution to strong and inclusive growth in developing and emerging market countries; Reaffirm the value of peer-to-peer knowledge exchange and learning among financial regulators and policymakers for the design and implementation of innovative financial inclusion policy solutions relevant to the developing world; Recall our efforts over the last two years to strengthen and expand the AFI network and to identify and explore high-priority areas for financial inclusion policy in the developing world through AFI’s working groups; Commit as a network of developing and emerging market financial regulators and policymakers to: We remain dedicated to making financial inclusion a reality through concerted domestic and global actions, and actively sharing our knowledge and experience through the AFI network. We commit to delivering concrete financial inclusion outcomes for the developing world to provide sustainable, relevant, cost-effective, and meaningful financial services for the world’s financially unserved populations.