Foro Cooperativo de Innovación Financiera Opens to 165 Financial Institution Leaders in Panama

Oscar Guzman Paul Treinen and Grace Badilla Lopez Innovation for Financial Inclusion through Integration and Open Finance

World Council of Credit Unions’ (WOCCU) on Thursday kicked off the first Cooperative Forum on Financial Innovation (Foro Cooperativo de Innovación Financiera), a powerful event bringing together 165 leaders from credit unions, cooperatives, banks and other financial institutions spread across 13 Latin American countries to explore how innovation, digital transformation and collaboration can build more inclusive and sustainable financial ecosystems.

“Today more than ever, the world needs solutions that combine innovation with values, efficiency with solidarity, technology with humanity. And that is where cooperativism must be present to contribute. In Latin America, we know what it means to open paths where there are none. We know the cost of reaching rural communities, entrepreneurial women and young people who want opportunities, not welfare. And we also know that the cooperative model—when managed with excellence, ethics, and vision—is capable of changing lives,” said Grace Badilla Lopez, a WOCCU Board Director and President of FEDEAC R.L. in Costa Rica, who opened the forum along with WOCCU Interim President and CEO Paul Treinen.

WOCCU Projects Director Oscar Guzman followed with a presentation on Innovation and Untapped Markets.

“Financial innovation for credit unions in Latin America and the Caribbean starts with putting members and people at the center, especially excluded populations, millions of women, youth, rural families and low-income entrepreneurs. We must understand their needs and implement digital solutions, products, channels and payment services that meet them, while also providing financial education programs that promote resilience and improve their lives,” said Guzman. "The 'blue ocean' for credit unions is keeping a social and entrepreneurial balance to ensure financial sustainability and make our sector relevant again."

Day one also featured two panel discussions, including one on Innovation for Financial Inclusion through Integration and Open Finance, with Paola Andrea Arias, Director of Banca de las Oportunidades in Colombia, and Santiago Saavedra, Research, Development and Innovation Manager at FENACOAC – MICOOPE, a credit union system in Guatemala.

In the case of MICOOPE, Saavedra showed how combined efforts, under a common strategy, strengthens the sustainability of each cooperative and improves the quality of service to members. It is a model of cooperation between cooperatives that yields tangible and replicable results.

Arias talked Colombia's experience, which shows how the ethical and strategic use of data can reduce asymmetries, improve product design and enable more personalized service to historically excluded segments.

The other panel discussion focused on the digitalization of financial services in Peru.

Day two of the forum will focus on institutional risk and sustainability, the regulations that impact those areas, the future of payments, as well as digital channels and products.