GBA Supports NAFIN to Develop Mexican Ecosystem for Women-Owned SMEs

2 Minutes Read

Seven Mexican banks attended a one-day workshop on best practices in serving the Women’s Market as part of Nacional Financiera’s (National Development Bank of Mexico, known as NAFIN), strategy to encourage banks to serve women-owned businesses. GBA’s Inez Murray and Rebecca Ruf were joined by Daniel Gutiérrez from Banco BHD León and Denise Hills from Itaú Unibanco, who shared the ins and outs of targeting the Women’s Market, as well as GBA sponsors the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and IFC, a member of the World Bank Group. Participating Mexican banks have made some headway into this market over the past 12 months, availing themselves of NAFIN’s Mujer PYME program, which guarantees up to 80 percent of the portfolio. Four of these banks showcased their strategies, and a constructive dialogue ensued between GBA and the banks.

The day culminated in an event to launch NAFIN’s Alianza Contigo, an initiative to unite ecosystem actors in Mexico to support women business owners with finance, training, mentoring, access to markets and other services. The event started with a presentation by the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV) on the latest data on the status of women-owned SMEs in Mexico and its initiative to increase the collection of sex-disaggregated data from banks. A panel made of GBA members BHD León and WEConnect International, the IDB, and the Association of Mexican Business Women was ably moderated by Tonatiuh Salinas Muñoz, Adjunct Director of NAFIN. The discussion centered on key ways to create a sustaining ecosystem for women-owned SMEs in Mexico, with recommendations ranging from sharing know-how across actors, to encouraging corporations to adopt supplier diversity programs, to developing a concerted national effort to achieve diversity in senior management across industries and NAFIN itself.

GBA was honored to support the day and looks forward to seeing many of the Mexican Banks join us at the All-Stars Academy being hosted by Banco BHD León May 23-26 in the Dominican Republic.