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Mexico City, June 20, 2012
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is providing training to 15 Mexican banks on scaling up financing for small and medium enterprises, developing their potential to expand operations and contribute to economic growth in Mexico.
Data from the Mexican National Economic Census and the World Bank Enterprise Survey show that there are more than 710,000 formal small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Mexico. Of these, 57 percent do not have a checking account and 38 percent lack the necessary credit to grow their businesses. IFC’s training program helps address these problems by promoting access to finance and other essential banking services for SMEs.
The program, developed in collaboration with Austrian Development Bank Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank AG, is training bank executives in strategy, market segmentation, product design, customer management, credit-risk management, and information-management systems. Banks participating in the program include Banco del Bajio, Banorte, Agrofinanzas, and Compartamos, among others.
“IFC is committed to developing the potential of SMEs in Mexico as they are a key engine of economic growth,” said Ignacio Estévez, IFC’s Access to SME Banking Specialist for Latin America and the Caribbean. “This program aims to work with the financial sector in Mexico and the wider region to expand their services into new markets and reach more SMEs.”
The training is part of IFC’s broader support to the financial sector in Mexico. IFC currently has commitments of up to $450 million in Mexican banks, with a special focus on microfinance, trade, and expanding financial services to small and medium enterprises.
The training was designed by IFC’s Global SME Banking Program to help banks in middle-income and developing countries assess the potential benefits of targeting the SME sector and building or expanding this line of business. IFC has conducted similar trainings in East Asia and the Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa, where IFC has had a significant impact in bolstering SMEs.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, providing advisory services to businesses and governments, and mobilizing capital in the international financial markets. In fiscal 2011, amid economic uncertainty across the globe, we helped our clients create jobs, strengthen environmental performance, and contribute to their local communities—all while driving our investments to an all-time high of nearly $19 billion. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
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