Mexico's thir- largest bank Santander Serfin has set aside 1bn pesos (US$86.8m) for loans to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) under a new credit scoring alliance with government mortgage bank Infonavit.
"We at Infonavit want to promote the prompt payment of employer obligations by rewarding qualifying businessmen through this programme," said Infonavit CEO Victor Borras.
Under the first phase of the programme called "Empresas de 10," about 10,000 SMEs with 1-25 employees and a history of 20 consecutive monthly payments to Infonavit will qualify for Santander credit lines of up to 100,000 pesos.
Infonavit has a data base of 800,000 SMEs that it is prepared to share with banks in order to facilitate credit to the sector, Borras said.
SMEs have traditionally found it difficult to access bank financing because they frequently lack financial statements, operate in the informal sector, or are unable to offer assets as collateral.
