Financial inclusion has been part of the business strategies of banks and fund managers, mainly driven by multilateral lending agencies that have allocated billions of dollars in loans and subsidies for this purpose.
Financial inclusion is understood as "improving the access that individuals and companies have to financial products and services that serve their needs, transactions, payments, savings, credit, insurance or investments" .
The World Bank has defined it as a key element to reduce poverty and promote prosperity.
Digital financial inclusion involves the use of digital means to provide formal financial services tailored to the needs of populations currently excluded from the financial sector.
Tokenization is undoubtedly a tool that will revolutionize the business world by financially including hundreds of millions of people so that they can save and invest in products intended only for large investors.
In this sense, HSBC, the leading British bank in terms of deposit size, second in Europe and eighth in the world, has launched the HSBC Gold Token for retail customers in Hong Kong, incorporating representations of physical gold.
The tokens will be available for purchase through the bank's mobile app and website and will be issued on the HSBC Orion blockchain network.
Tokenized gold refers to physical gold whose ownership rights are stored digitally on a blockchain.
Tokenized gold assets are not a new concept: they exceeded $1 billion in value globally in 2023.
Tokenized bonds
Last month, the Hong Kong government completed the world's first multicurrency digital bond offering worth around $750 million. The bonds were issued directly on HSBC Orion's private blockchain as part of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Central Currency Markets Unit.
Other financial products.
The Hong Kong government is formulating a regulatory regime to sell stable coins to retail investors. Stable coins are cryptocurrency assets issued by private entities against a portfolio of traditional financial assets.
HSBC bank and the Hong Kong government are one step ahead in the race for finance and financial inclusion.
New markets
Buying gold, lithium, soybeans, shares in any market, lending money to large companies, betting on the decline of any publicly traded asset, are some of the investments that are off-limits to most mortals. Tokenization will give access to this world of financial products to millions of people, who will be able to invest pennies, tens, hundreds or thousands, according to their possibilities and risk propensity.
It is very likely that in the near future the prices of financial assets, due to the effect of digitization and the increase in their demand, will rise in price considerably.
New players
On the other hand, new players are joining the system, Blockchain network administrators, advisors specialized in tokenomics, digital account management platform providers, Blockchain e-wallets and virtual advisors to reach millions of potential investors.
Argentina, when?
Replicating in Argentina novel models based on new technologies would allow the development of an efficient, scalable and inclusive financial market.
Unlike many countries in the region, Argentina has an adequate data infrastructure and massive usability of electronic devices, both conditions that make it a potential place to start the path towards the finance of the future.
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