Here is the rewritten article in markdown format:

Dominican Republic’s Banking System Seeks to Boost Financial Inclusion through Innovative Strategies

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

The Superintendency of Banks (SB) has launched a new strategic approach to promote financial inclusion in the country by leveraging subagents (SABs), which are local small and medium businesses that offer limited banking services as agents for financial service providers.

Promoting Financial Inclusion through Subagents

According to data from the SB, there were 2,016 operational SABs in the Dominican Republic at the end of 2021, accounting for approximately 40.2% of registered SABs. The number of operational SABs peaked in 2017 with 2,915 establishments and has shown a steady decline since then.

Despite this decline, the transacted amounts through SABs have consistently increased each year, reaching DOP67 million (approximately USD 1.21 million) by 2021, with a year-on-year increase of 12.8%. This suggests that the national operational SABs network is becoming more efficient and taking advantage of both economies of scale and scope.

Prioritizing Effectiveness over Quantity

The SB’s new strategic approach prioritizes effectiveness over sheer quantity, recognizing that what good is a registered SAB if people don’t use it? By focusing on operational SABs, which are those subagents that effectively carried out transactions with the public within a 12-month period, the SB aims to tackle banking deserts - areas where there are no bank branches.

Common Transactions Performed by Subagents

• Cash deposits and payments
• Checks These types of transactions account for 57% of all services provided by SABs.