Posted on September 18, 2008 - by James

Mexico: World Bank Approves Additional US$50 Million for Rural Financing in Mexico…

Mexico City, September 9, 2008—Today the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved an additional US$50 million to assist the Mexican Government in strengthening savings and credit institutions in the rural sector. This project comes about as support to the Public Saving and Credit Law approved in 2001. The Law combined legal and regulatory reforms with public investment to create and strengthen the capacity of the savings and credit institutions in the rural sector, as well as the regulatory agencies that supervise them.

Currently, the World Bank (WB) supports Mexican authorities in this area through the Savings and Rural Finance Project, which is now in its second phase of implementation. The US$50 million will be spent to close the financial gap that arose in the first phase of its implementation. The increase in the project’s cost is due to some changes generated in the Law, particularly in the extension of the deadlines for certification.

“We are very happy to continue supporting the Mexican Government in this effort. To this date, sixty-nine financial institutions have been certified and another three applications are being considered by the National Banking and Securities Commission, the regulatory agency. We also know that there are another two hundred and sixty-six entities that are almost ready to be certified. Jointly, all of them make up ninety percent of the membership in the sector. We hope this takes place by December of 2010¨, stated Axel van Trotsenburg, Director of the World Bank for Mexico and Colombia… [click here to read the rest of this article...]