Leading Mexican banks Santander Serfin, Banco Bital and BBVA Bancomer have made only 30% of the 15,800 small business loans previously pledged under a government sponsored loan programme, according to the economy ministry's business promotion chief Jose Becerra.
The federal government has put up 96m pesos (US$8.9m today) in loan guarantees under the Programme Nacional de Garantias as an incentive for banks to lend to small businesses.
The three banks joined the programme in May last year and had 12 months to use the guarantees. Under the terms of the agreement, Santander pledged to issue 700-800 loans with 50m pesos in government backing, with Bital and Bancomer pledging to make 5,000 loans backed by 25m pesos and 10,000 loans backed by 21m pesos respectively.
