Search Results for: Mexico

Source: World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU).

Source: Business Week.

Financial Times: “Thriving industry is proof the poor can, and do, save.”

Wal-mart de México (Walmex), a subsidiary of the world’s largest retailer, has started its own bank, Banco Wal-mart de México Adelante. According to Reuters, Banco Wal-mart opened nine branches this month, with a total of 16 planned for November. Currently, the branches are offering free savings accounts and personal credit for in-store purchases up to 50,000 Mexican pesos (USD 4,450 equivalent). The bank is planning on opening as many as 80 branches in 2008 and will launch checking accounts, credit cards, payroll accounts and loans for small companies.

Here is yet another story coming courtesy from the latest issue of the Microfinance Capital Markets Newsletter of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the MIX, the microfinance information clearinghouse. ResponsAbility Global Microfinance Fund has made a series of loans totaling over USD 1.1 million to two Latin American microfinance institutions (MFIs). The two MFIs—Unión de Crédito Interestatal Chiapas (Unicreich) and PRESTANIC—received USD 462,800, USD and USD 500,000, respectively. The loans took place in July of this year, two of the seven loan investments undertaken by the microfinance fund. The Latin American loans consist of 13.3 percent of the fund’s July microfinance investments, which totaled over USD 7.2 million.

Source: International Finance Corporation, Adriana Gomez

Article available here.

IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, today signed an agreement with Banco Amigo S.A., a newly established microfinance bank in Monterrey, Mexico. IFC will provide financing to help the bank expand its products and services to low-income entrepreneurs and women-owned small businesses.

This story comes to us courtesy of the MIX-CGAP March 2007 newsletter. The Venezuela-based multilateral financial institution Andean Development Cooperation (CAF) purchased USD 1.7 mn in shares from two Latin American microfinance institutions (MFIs) and took a 9 percent stake in another. USD 1.5 mn of CAF’s investment went towards the purchase of shares from LOCFUND, a local currency fund for Latin America and the Caribbean based in Bolivia funded by various investors to serve micro and small enterprises via microfinance institutions. It does not report to the MIX market, the microfinance information clearinghouse, nor does it make its fund financial data available to the public. CAF purchased USD 200,000 worth of shares from MICROFIN Uruguay, a commercial MFI that also does not report to MIX market or make its financial data publicly available. CAF also took a 9 percent stake in MicroCred Mexico, a subsidiary of the microfinance network MicroCred Holdings, a subsidiary of the French organization, PlaNet Finance which was established in 2005 to create commercial microfinance opportunities. While neither MicroCred Mexico nor MicroCred Holdings make any of its financial data available to the non share-holding public, Microcapital.org recently reported MicroCred Holding’s USD 787,740 investment in MicroCred Mexico.

Continue reading “Venezuela-based Andean Development Cooperation Invests in Three Latin American Microfinance Institutions: Bolivian LOCFUND, Uruguay-based MICROFIN and MicroCred Mexico”

Continue reading “US-based Microfinance Network Women’s World Banking and Mexican Grupo Financiero Banorte Host Rural Microfinance Workshop in Mexico Feb 21-23”

Unitus, a nonprofit organization committed to fighting global poverty through microfinance, will partner with Credex, a MFI in Mexico. Unitus was founded in 2000, by Bob Gay, Mike Murray, Joseph Grenny and Todd Manwaring, and is dedicated to providing capital investments and consulting services to financially sustainable MFIs worldwide. As of 2006, Unitus had 10 MFI partners worldwide serving more than 820,000 poor clients and as of December 2006, the Unitus portfolio of partners provided loans to 1.2 million micro-entrepreneurs and their families in India, Kenya, Mexico, Argentina, the Philippines and Indonesia. The details of the partnership between Credex and Unitus have not been announced. Credex, founded in 2002, targets the working poor in southwestern and central Mexico and has plans to expand across the nation. Since its establishment Credex has disbursed over 30,000 loans and currently serves close to 12,000 active borrowers with a $5 million loan portfolio. Credex does not report to the MIX Market, the microfinance information clearinghouse and no other information is publicly available about its performance. The partnership hopes to bring life-changing financial services to more than 82,000 customers by 2009, an increase from 12,000 today. Credex is Unitus’s second microfinance partner in Mexico, along with Pro Mujer Mexico.

Continue reading “Unitus Partners with Credex to Expand Access to Microfinance in Mexico”

BusinessWeek.com recently published an article online about the future of microinsurance in Mexico; to summarize:

In recent years, microinsurance offerings have increased in Mexico through Grupo Elektra’s Seguros Azteca and Citgroup’s local insurance unit Seguros Banamex. To simplify and to keep costs down, both groups do not do selective underwriting; in effect, policies are not based specifically on health, age, or medical history. Instead, the companies use proprietary mortality tables developed for this segment of clients in order to balance premiums and claims.

Continue reading “Microinsurance Offerings Increase in Mexico Through Seguros Banamex and Seguros Azteca”