Determinants of financial inclusion and the impact of COVID-19 in the Latin America and Caribbean

Purpose: The study examines the determinants of financial inclusion and the impact of COVID-19 in the Latin America and the Caribbean during the pandemic. Methodology: It uses the database from the World Bank’s Global Findex 2021 collected during the COVID-19 pandemic on eight Caribbean countries to run logit regression to investigate the determinants and how COVID-19 influenced financial inclusion. Results: On the main determinants, the study found that female and lower income group individuals have low financial exclusion rate though financial inclusion increases with increase income. Originality of the Paper: The study used data collected during COVID-19 era to investigate how the pandemic affected financial inclusion which is one fo the first of its kind.