Following the 1994-95 peso crisis, factoring firms (empresas de factoraje financiero) struggled to restructure their own debt and faced portfolios of past-due credits at least as severe as those burdening the banking sector.
Mexico's electronic commerce association, Amece, predicts it will be at least five or six years before the majority of businesses use electronic invoices.
Profits at Mexico's 16 factoring companies fell 21.5% to 157m pesos (US$13.5m) in 2003 due, in part, to higher administrative costs, according to statistics released by the banking regulator CNBV.
Profits at Mexico's fourth-largest banking group Grupo Financiero Banorte (GF Banorte) widened year-on-year 5.7% to 559m pesos (US$49m) in the first quarter, thanks to higher commission and financial intermediation revenues.
Luis Antonio Mahbub Sarquis, president of the Chambers of Commerce Federation (Concanaco), said that 3,600 companies in Mexico were forced to stop operating in 2003 due to market problems, administrative difficulties and the lack of programmes to
Hector Barreto, administrator of the US Small Business Administration (SBA), praised Mexico's commitment to helping small enterprises on Tuesday.
Mexico's President Vicente Fox wants bankers to speed-up lending to support a nascent economic recovery, he told the Mexican Banking Association's (ABM) 67th annual convention in Acapulco.
Sergio Garcнa de Alba, under secretary for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of the Economy Secretariat, reported that 4,000 SMEs stopped paying quotas to the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) during 2003.
The delay by the Treasury Secretariat in defining a new law has setback the plans of specialised financial intermediaries, according to sources from the sector.
A new Germany-based company will soon join the local banking sector when it opens the first Mexican office of Deutsche Investitions und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG). DEG will focus on services to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
