Mexico—Technical Assistance Program for Rural Microfinance (PATMIR)

Many people in Mexico are too poor or geographically isolated to use traditional banks for services such as saving and borrowing. We worked with an alliance of regulated financial institutions to expand access to basic financial services to the poor. This included applying new approaches to branchless banking. Together with our alliance partners, our goal was to add 175,000 savings clients to the formal financial sector in Mexico while responding to conditions of local markets and the changing context of personal and small business finance. The Technical Assistance Program for Rural Microfinance (PATMIR) project, a results-based project, continues our record of building the capacity of financial institutions and developing new products and services and delivery channels in Mexico and the region.

Sample Activities

• Help build the capacity of local financial institutions to increase service in rural and native markets by providing targeted assistance, training, and grants.
• Expand retail operations in these institutions.
• Build the capacity of key government agencies that support the industry.
• Promote the results of the program and compliance with regulatory demands.
• Consolidate the sector in its focus to serve rural, native, women, and other underserved markets.
• Improve institutional capacity to comply with regulations for deposit-taking institutions.
• Improve efficiency in financial mediation.
• Promote the use of technology and low-cost delivery channels where applicable.

Select Results

• Assisted 44 rural cooperatives in management, marketing, and operational systems and introduced low-cost technology that improved access to financial services among target populations.
• Supported rural cooperatives to recruit more than 180,000 new bank clients, 57 percent of whom were women.
• Achieved score of 99 percent in quality control on client and portfolio information, top among Bansefi partner institutions.
• Introduced low-cost credit and debit products to more than 23,000 rural cooperative members.