Country
Mexico

Local Project Partners
Around 40 mostly small savings banks in rural areas of Mexico

German Project Partners
n.a.

Donator
BANSEFI (Mexico’s national development bank) with financial support from the World Bank

Duration
01/2012 - 01/2017

In rural Mexico, very few people have access to financial services. In contrast to the cities, these areas often have no financial institutions at all. However, help is at hand in the form of the country’s cooperatives and savings banks (cajas). For them, rural areas constitute an attractive market. Moreover, these institutions also have a social mandate. Given the cajas’ aversion to the costs and risks involved in establishing subsidiaries in small towns with below-average incomes, a key project component centres on reimbursing a large proportion of their expansion costs.

To be eligible for this support, the cajas concerned have to work with Sparkassenstiftung to map out a concept for expansion. This includes new market-oriented products and technologies, appropriate marketing strategies and measures for enhancing efficiency. Professional training for savings banks’ staff and financial education measures for their customers (especially women and indigenous population groups) also form part of this portfolio.

Besides introducing savings and lending products in the savings banks taking part, this project has led to training for marketing staff and to the recruitment and induction of new personnel as well as to the implementation of market studies. Furthermore, it has resulted in the launch of new branch offices and the formulation and introduction of new marketing measures. At the same time, it has assisted the generally unregulated savings banks with their licensing process, specifically in the field of risk management, internal auditing and treasury management. This package of measures is helping to advance the development of Mexico’s savings and cooperative sector.

In the course of the four-and-a-half-year project term, Sparkassenstiftung persuaded around 50 mostly small savings banks in Mexico to take part in the project, resulting in a total of 240,250 new customers by the end of 2016. This is on top of the 144,000 or so new customers acquired by its predecessor project, PATMIR II. Project activities have, therefore, made a key contribution to financial inclusion in rural Mexico. The project was steered by Mexico’s national development bank BANSEFI with financial support from the World Bank as part of a comprehensive programme designed to improve access to financial services. This very successful project finished at the close of 2016. BANSEFI is currently looking into various options for continuing PATMIR activities.