Where We Work

Latin America

Our partners in LAC come from six countries. Mexico is a priority market where we have made deep investments in engaging with regulators and multiple financial service providers.

Primary Problem We’ve Set Out to Address

Usage and Engagement for Underbanked

Despite a push towards financial inclusion in Mexico, 17 million adult women remain financially excluded, while 12 million adult women have access to only one financial product. Our focus in Mexico is to advance access and engagement of financial services for MSMEs, domestic workers, remittance recipients and youth. Given new fintech regulations, we also focus on digital financial services and capabilities for women. We see partnership with regulators and other government stakeholders as critical to close the gender gap that has increased over the past 10 years.

How We're Addressing the Problem

Our work in Mexico started with retail and microfinance banks that were committed to serving low-income populations. Innovation came as we looked at expanding digital credit and addressing gender bias in lending approaches and algorithms. We also worked with e-commerce supporting MSMEs to transact digitally during Covid. We continue to partner with regulators through our Leadership & Diversity Program for Regulators, supporting them in building more inclusive policies.

What We Are Learning

Understanding diverse customer segments and their unique needs is essential to develop tailored solutions that meet their needs
Banks and monetary finance institutions (MFIs) are critical partners to reach women at scale
Fintech models that are highly innovative and with the ability to reach scale are emerging
Offering non-financial services starts to strengthen the value proposition.

Results We Are Seeing

Take our partnership with Banco Azteca for example – more than 1 million entrepreneurs (52% women) are expanding their clientele and sales by engaging with a new interface on the bank’s app, “BAZ,” which was relaunched with the unique needs of women in mind. This platform provides a marketplace for Banco Azteca customers to offer their products and services to other bank clients.