Financiera para el Bienestar advanced financial inclusion in Mexico and the United States in four years

María del Rocío Mejía Flores, head of the Financial Well-being Agency (Finabien), delivered her fourth accountability report on September 9 at the Los Pinos Cultural Complex. Before hundreds of attendees, she outlined the achievements and progress of this institution, founded in 2020 with President López Obrador's mandate to leverage the extensive infrastructure of Telecommunications of Mexico–Telecomm Telégrafos —for the benefit of the public.

Rocío Mejía opened her presentation with a thoughtful reflection: “There was always talk of financial inclusion, but financial exclusion never truly ended. Could it be that it was never the goal during the long neoliberal period?”

According to the National Survey of Financial Inclusion (ENIF), 32.2% of Mexicans aged 18 to 70 cannot access formal financial products such as savings accounts, credit, insurance, or pensions. This underscores the importance of promoting financial inclusion, especially in remote municipalities where traditional banking services are scarce.

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Thus, Finabien’s triad—credit, popular savings, and remittances—has become a virtuous cycle, facilitating access to banking services, safe savings through CETES, and remittances with terms previously unavailable to Mexican nationals living in the United States.

What have been the achievements in credit?

The institution made credit accessible to populations historically lacking favorable conditions: directly, without intermediaries, collateral, co-signers, or credit history, and with zero or meager interest rates.

The four programs launched include Tandas para el Bienestar, Créditos a la Palabra, a particular loan for women called Crédito Libertad Mujer, and the Esperanza 1 and 2 loans, which were provided in Acapulco following Hurricane Otis.

From 2019 to 2024, 2,869,932 loans, amounting to 46,766 million pesos, were granted, aimed at financing productive activities and, most importantly, creating jobs.

Mejía highlighted that there has been no budget to grant new loans for the last two years, and all funds distributed came from reinvestment. “The beneficiaries have responded… and it was enough to support the businesses in Acapulco that sought resources after Hurricane Otis,” she said.

She emphasized that job creation and poverty reduction are the most visible outcomes of this strategy to serve the neediest communities. According to INEGI, “under the administration of the Fourth Transformation, more than 5.1 million people emerged from poverty between 2018 and 2022.”

Additionally, she noted that microloans are always accompanied by training, technical assistance, and marketing support through partnerships with universities and public and private institutions, ensuring that businesses are successful and sustainable.

Was popular savings successfully promoted?

As for popular savings, Finabien provided a formal option for young people and low-income individuals, historically excluded from this opportunity, to save and earn reasonable returns.

Through an agreement with Nacional Financiera and the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, CETES accounts were opened in their 1,700 branches, starting at just 100 pesos, making it accessible for people to invest in safe government bonds. The report shows over 7,000 accounts have been opened to access this formal savings instrument.

Gabriel Yoiro González, Undersecretary of Finance and Public Credit, stated that the number of investors has grown from 300,000 at the start of President López Obrador's administration to nearly 2.3 million, an unprecedented effort that has paid out close to 10 billion pesos in returns.

"At the Ministry of Finance, we are convinced that financial inclusion is a powerful tool to combat poverty and inequality,” he concluded.

Sending remittances quickly and affordably

One of President López Obrador's directives to Finabien’s head was to implement a mechanism that would make sending remittances from the United States to Mexico easier and more affordable.

The Finabien USA Card was introduced on May 1, 2023, during a morning press conference. Since then, 77,000 cards have been issued in the United States, reducing the cost of sending up to $2,500 to just $3.99, Mejía reported.

So far, more than $12 million has been sent. “While this may seem like a small amount, it is an indicator that the system works and operates effectively, so it’s only a matter of time before thousands more Mexicans use this option,” she noted.

Additionally, she emphasized that this is the first time the Mexican government has provided its citizens abroad with a bank account and the ability to receive payroll and transfers in the United States.

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