Formal savings in the Dominican Republic, defined as money saved through regulated financial institutions, have seen significant and sustained growth over the past few decades, an article published on its website by the Association of Banks of the Dominican Republic reveals. This trend is crucial as it provides households and businesses with a safer, wider range of financial products and services, while simultaneously expanding the resource base for financing investment and strengthening the stability of the financial system.
The percentage of savings deposits, when measured as a share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), has increased substantially, rising from 18% in 1996 to 42% in 2024.
Likewise, the percentage of adults with a banking account in the Dominican Republic went from 51% in 2021 to 65% in 2024, according to the World Bank global survey on financial inclusion for 2024.
The sustained growth in formal savings has been primarily fueled by three key factors:
Digitalization: The increasing use of technology in financial services.
Financial education: Efforts to improve the population’s understanding of financial concepts.
Expansion of financial inclusion: Actions aimed at increasing the access of individuals and businesses to the formal financial system.
These advances reflect a positive transformation, although the country still needs to deepen these efforts to reach the savings levels observed in other Latin American economies (where the average is 49% of GDP).
Increased financial inclusion directly leads to a rise in formal savings. This has been stimulated by public policy initiatives and there was a big boost in 2020 when Covid-19 forced hundreds of thousands to go digital. Likewise, most of the people living in the Dominican Republic have cell phones.
The Central Bank has been developing the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (ENIF) 2022-2030, coordinating policy actions to boost the access and use of quality financial products and services for the country’s unbanked sectors.
In coordination with authorities, banks have transformed their business models, leveraging technology to offer alternatives to traditional bank branches, thereby facilitating population access to services:
Alternative channels: Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), bank sub-agents, internet banking, mobile applications, and instant messaging.
Digital onboarding: New processes allow individuals to open accounts and/or request other financial products 100% digitally, eliminating the need for queues or paperwork, which saves time and money.
The increased base of formal savings directly benefits households and businesses. Recent data shows significant progress: the percentage of people with a formal savings account rose from 38% in 2011 to 63% in 2025, and those who saved in the last 12 months increased from 16% to 27%, surpassing the Latin American average (24%).
Read more in Spanish:
Dominican Banks Association
El Dia
World Bank Global Findex Database Report
27 October 2025