Posts Tagged ‘mexico’
Posted on February 25, 2010 - by James
WSJ: Mexico’s Compartamos Eyes 20% Profit Growth, Deals In 2010
MEXICO CITY (Dow Jones)–Mexican microfinance bank Banco Compartamos SA (COMPART.MX) plans to grow its profit 20% this year and is looking for acquisitions in other Latin American countries, top executives said Tuesday.
“In Mexico, we think the best way to grow is organically, but outside of Mexico we are open to and looking for opportunities to acquire a well-managed institution with a focus similar to our own,” said Fernando Alvarez Toca, Compartamos’ chief executive, in an interview.
Alvarez Toca said the company has an internal team looking for acquisitions.
“Colombia, Peru and Brazil are countries that we think have the best environment for an operation like ours, but we aren’t ruling any [country] out,” he said.
Last week, Mexican consumer finance company Financiera Independencia SAB (FINDEP.MX) closed the acquisition of Financiera Finsol in a deal that boosted its domestic microfinance business and gave it a foothold in Brazil.
Posted on June 26, 2009 - by Gavin
Global Partnerships gets microfinance grant…
Triangle Business Journal
Global Partnerships, a Seattle microfinance organization, has
received an $180,000 grant to help manage its loan funds, which
have attracted more than $45 million in capital since 2006.
The organization received the three-year grant from the M.J.
Murdock Charitable Trust in Vancouver, Wash. The grant will
primarily be used to hire a director of investment operations.
More broadly, it will allow the nonprofit to better manage its
three investment funds and improve its management and tracking of
fund data.
Since 2006, Global Partnership’s funds under management have
increased from $2.5 million to more than $48 million. Some of the
nonprofit’s existing loan fund investors include Seattle
University.
Posted on April 29, 2009 - by Gavin
Grameen Foundation honors Marshall Saunders…
The Asian Banker
Grameen Foundation, a global microfinance and technology organization, has announced Marshall Saunders as its 2009 Humanitarian Award recipient. Saunders, a philanthropist and microfinance practitioner, is being recognized for his two decades of advocacy and support for global microfinance initiatives, particularly in Mexico, Honduras, and India. He was honored at a ceremony in San Diego on April 24.
After reading about microfinance in 1991, Saunders visited Tijuana, Mexico, where he met poor women who inspired him with their resilience, optimism and business savvy in the face of grinding poverty. That encounter with microfinance clients so close to his home in San Diego sparked his passion and commitment to fighting global poverty. He was an early supporter of microfinance institutions CASHPOR and Grama Vidiyal in India and FINCA Village Banks in eight Latin American countries. He has also been a tireless advocate for RESULTS San Diego where he led efforts to raise awareness and support for fighting poverty and hunger.
Saunders was also one of Grameen Foundation’s earliest allies when it was launched in 1997. “Marshall has spent the last two decades excelling in four roles—advocate, practitioner, philanthropist and fund-raiser—that were central to building the microfinance movement,” said Alex Counts, president of Grameen Foundation. “His modest approach and tendency to shine the light on others have been hallmarks of his work, and his legacy will be one of selfless contribution and concrete results.” (more…)
Posted on March 24, 2009 - by Gavin
Mexico’s Microfinance Industry Undergoes Shake-Up On Crisis…
Wall Street Journal
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
MEXICO CITY (Dow Jones)–Mexico’s microfinance industry is undergoing a major shake-up as the global financial crisis spurs banks that had dabbled in the sector in recent years to pull out altogether, at the same time making funding scarce for specialized lenders.
Mexico’s fifth-biggest bank Grupo Financiero Banorte SAB (GFNORTE.MX) is shutting its microfinance arm Creditos Pronegocio, which it launched in 2005, after its losses widened to 120 million pesos ($8.4 million) last year from MXN30 million in 2007.
“Pronegocio has been in liquidation since last year,” said Alejandro Valenzuela, the bank’s chief executive, in an interview. “We feel that right now it is a major distraction from the big challenges we face.”
HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC), which owns Mexico’s fourth-largest bank, sold its 18.7% stake in consumer loan and microfinance institution Financiera Independencia SAB (FINDEP.MX) to the company’s controlling shareholders for about $145 million last November, in order to focus on its banking business. (more…)
Posted on March 20, 2009 - by Gavin
Mexico’s Banorte Upbeat On Growth After Strong Start To 2009…
Wall Street Journal
ACAPULCO, Mexico (Dow Jones)–Mexico’s fifth-largest bank Grupo Financiero Banorte SAB (GFNORTE.MX) is cautiously optimistic it can reach its forecast of 10% loan growth this year following good operating results in January and February, Chief Executive Alejandro Valenzuela said.
“They were two very good months in terms of financial margin and in terms of growth,” Valenzuela said in an interview Thursday. “The big question is how much more the Mexican economy could slow.”
The executive said the low use of financial services in Mexico and less competition from foreign-owned rivals are underpinning Banorte’s growth.
“There are foreign banks in Mexico that are pulling back on lending because of financial problems at their parent companies That has opened up opportunities for us,” he said.
Banorte is the largest bank still controlled by Mexican investors after foreign investors acquired five of the country’s top seven banks earlier in the decade.
Bank lending to the private sector has slowed considerably in recent quarters as the economy faces headwinds from a recession in the U.S., buyer of 80% of Mexico’s exports. (more…)
Posted on March 16, 2009 - by Gavin
NEWS WIRE: Over 80 percent of Investors have not Reduced their Microfinance Investment Portfolio Due to the Global Recession…
Microcapital
MUMBAI, India, – As the recession spreads to developing countries around the world, and the effects of the crisis set in, Microfinance Insights explores how the microfinance sector is coping with the global recession. In the March/April 2009 issue, Global Crisis & Microfinance, sector stakeholders, from institutional investors to microfinance institutions and their clients, reveal how they have been affected by the liquidity crisis and speculate on when it will end.
Microfinance clients, many of whom are below the poverty line, have felt the squeeze with rising food and energy prices, decreases in remittances and less availability of loans. Many microfinance institutions (MFIs), particularly those not permitted to mobilize deposits, have struggled to maintain the liquidity to continue loan cycles without interruption. As the situation worsens, equity investors continue to show interest in investing in large microfinance institutions, confident that many established MFIs will weather the crisis.
Microfinance Insights, the international print magazine, brings a diversity of new perspectives to the forefront in this issue, shedding light on the road ahead for the sector. In this issue, the magazine publishes a new survey on microfinance and the global economic crisis, gathering views from 120 MFIs and 40 investors from around the world on a range of issues from strategic organizational changes to risk assessment. (more…)
Posted on March 9, 2009 - by Gavin
Mexico is Launching Micro-Small-Medium Business Program…
Mexidata.Info
Presidency of the Republic
Over the next few days, the goal will be to provide $250 billion pesos in credit
In order to facilitate the development of the country’s micro, small and medium firms (PyMES) during this international economic juncture, President Felipe Calderón implemented the Mexico Business Program to provide business training and advice
“We are throwing our support behind the PyMES because they are the heart of our economy,” declared the President, adding that they produce over half the Gross Domestic Product, and that they are responsible for creating nearly three quarters of the jobs in Mexico.
In the Adolfo López Mateos Hall at the Official Residence, the President declared that through this program the federal government will be meeting one of the commitments assumed in the Agreement to Protect Families’ Economies and Jobs.
“We have set the goal of providing a record amount of $250 billion pesos in credit over the next four years for the country’s micro, small and medium businesses,” explained the President.
He announced that so far this year, PyMES credits of over $5.4 billion pesos have been granted, an increase of over 15% over the same period last year.
Posted on February 26, 2009 - by Gavin
Microfinancing still resilient in Mexico…
Financial Times
Until a year ago, microfinance and low-income banking in Mexico were a joint success story, growing at rates that made the rest of the country’s banking sector look sluggish.
But since the beginning of last year, as credit began to dry up on fears of global recession, the fortunes of the two sectors have diverged markedly.
Hardest hit has been low-income banking, where past-due loans have risen alarmingly. In the case of Bancoppel, for example, a bank built up around a well-established Mexican retail chain, past-due loans rose from 4.39 per cent of total loans in December 2007 to 20.12 per cent in December last year.
Guillermo Babatz, president of Mexico’s National Banking and Stock Market Commission (CNBV), expects consumer lending to be the only area in which loans will actually contract this year. “These banks’ problems have been much more acute than those of the rest of the [financial] system,” he says.
Indeed, only Banco Azteca, which belongs to the powerful Salinas Pliego group, seems to have come out of the changing conditions relatively unscathed. In late 2007, it reinforced its team of collections officers from 4,500 to 6,000, as well as giving bonuses to clients who paid their loans on time. “We started taking action a long time before we hit the bad spot … getting repaid is the key to how you can lend,” says Luis Niño, the bank’s president. (more…)
Posted on October 29, 2008 - by lincolnw
Grameen Trust moves into Mexico with Carlos Slim Foundation
Today, Grameen Trust, international affiliation of Grameen Bank and Fundación Carlos Slim AC, announced the new alliance Grameen-Carso which will donate micro credits to the neediest people in Mexico. Grameen Trust and Fundación Carlos Slim will have equal investments in this alliance and will start operating in areas with higher rate of poverty in Mexico.
Fundación Carlos Slim will provide an initial assets of 5 million dollars and guarantee other 40 million dollars for credit lines of this strategic alliance. Grameen Trust will be the manager of this alliance with experienced people in micro credits brought from Grameen Back. In the long run, Green’s managers will capacitate local managers in order to be in charge of procedures in Mexico.
Grameen-Carso will confer micro credit lines with lower interest rates than other micro credit suppliers in Mexico. This project will be a social company; all the profits will be re-invested in order to increase its operations…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on October 20, 2008 - by lincolnw
Financiera Independencia Appoints Market Maker
MEXICO CITY, Oct 17, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ — Financiera Independencia, S.A.B. de C.V., SOFOM, E.N.R. (BMV: FINDEP) (”Independencia”), a Mexican microfinance lender of personal loans to lower income segment individuals, announced today that it has appointed Casa de Bolsa Credit Suisse (Mexico), S.A. de C.V., Grupo Financiero Credit Suisse (Mexico) as market maker for the Company’s shares that are listed in the Mexican Stock Exchange. The agreement, effective next week, will be valid for an undetermined period…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on September 29, 2008 - by James
NY Times: Lenders to the Poor Adopt Guidelines…
MEXICO CITY — For months, the fellowship of institutions providing microfinancing has been angrily divided over the actions of one of its own.
Compartamos, a fast-growing Mexican bank, went public in April 2007 and sold $468 million in shares on the Mexican stock market and gave the cash to its investors. Critics said the bank, based here, was putting profit ahead of clients, contrary to the altruistic ideals of microlending, which specializes in giving tiny loans to the poorest of the poor.
In its defense, Compartamos said that the stock sale showed private investors that microfinance could be profitable and would attract more private capital to the industry.
Now, it seems, the two sides have reached a truce. This week, Compartamos joined a group of microfinancing organizations to announce a code of conduct to protect the microlenders’ clients from being exploited.
Organizations signing the code say it is meant to reaffirm the principles of microlending and set microlenders, which showed the poor were good credit risks, apart from consumer lenders entering the market.
But the campaign was also prompted by the reaction against Compartamos, the microfinancing institution that began as a nonprofit and is now a fully fledged bank with one million clients. Critics say that interest rates charged by Compartamos are too high — some as high as 100 percent — even though the bank’s costs have fallen… [click here to read the rest of this article...]
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...]
The MiFi Report
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