Mexico City. The “popular” Mexico demonstrated a capacity to resist and adapt to a new reality, even when small businesses, micro-enterprises or the population living in communities far from a metropolis turned out to be one of the sectors most affected by the crisis that it generated. Covid-19, assures Compartamos Banco.
Patricio Diez de Bonilla, general director of the institution, explains that after the most critical stage of the pandemic, which was the second quarter of the year, the vast majority of clients resumed their original payment plans.
That “attitude of struggle, capacity for change is what really excites us all, because we believe that by joining efforts from that micro-entrepreneur with the bank and with all the others, we can generate a greater economic dynamism that the country so requires,” he emphasizes. The banker.
In an interview with The Day, prior to the 84th Banking Convention, which will be held on March 11 and 12, Diez de Bonilla maintains that due to the above, this bank, which focuses on providing productive microcredits in areas where traditional banking does not reach, has the responsibility of keeping access to credit open.
He clarifies that the relationship with the administration is positive and there is a mutual interest in getting more Mexicans to access the financial system. Regarding the environment that surrounds the country in economic matters, he qualifies as necessary that there are clear rules and the rule of law to finance large infrastructure projects.
What opinions are collected from clients attending one year after the pandemic about their economic situation?
12 months ago, in the months of April May last year, when mobility restrictions were very tough, of course business, micro-businesses and large businesses, rather all economic activity, was significantly reduced.
Our clients’ businesses were also affected in their income and not only in their income, but also in the line of business in which they were engaged. If you were focused on the tourism sector and the tourism sector collapsed, you have to reinvent yourself.
What has happened with our clients is that if at the beginning of the contingency, in March or April, the impact on their income was significant, this has been recovering after months. Obviously, microentrepreneurs reinvent themselves, they look for those activities for which there is demand, even in a complex context such as the one we are experiencing in an economic slowdown.
Of course, at the beginning of the contingency the impact was relevant. It has been recovering gradually, businesses have been recovering, they have been reinventing themselves in different lines.
If there is no demand for clothes, then today I sell masks or disinfectant gel, in short, there have been adjustments in the business turns and well, it is through productive credit that we can make these microentrepreneurs reactivate and with them reactivate economic activity in their communities, in their regions and gradually throughout the country.
Was the customer support sufficient or is more needed?
Speaking of the relationship we had with the Government, we worked very quickly and together with the CNBV and the banks to understand the situation that was occurring and develop solutions that addressed it.
In the second quarter of last year, we offered support to our clients, where 100 percent of them told them: “If for any reason your business was reduced in size, in income and you cannot meet your payments, we will not pay, ”and we gave 100 percent of our clients ten weeks so they could have some flexibility to reinvent themselves and not be under pressure to service debt at the time.
Later, in the third quarter, we knew that they would need credit because their businesses had stopped and well, they needed to reactivate these in an agile way. So, in the third quarter, we went through a process of restructuring clients. It was a very streamlined process. We have a portfolio of four months and we have to restructure the vast majority of our clients and we renew in that period all of our portfolio.
We had to provision those clients that could not be restructured and at the end of the year, in the last quarter we knew that there was going to be a relevant need for credit for reactivation, since economic activity in the last quarter tends to rise not only due to contingency , but for the holidays especially.
This is where we play a very relevant role by accelerating credit and we managed to grow the portfolio by more than 11 percent in just three months. Then still at the end of last year, beginning of this, there were certain states that we went back to red light. Right now the number of infections is reducing and we are already at the orange traffic light and gradually with the deployment of vaccines, etc., we are seeing recovery especially by the end of this year.
In order to attend to the health contingency, the banking system, the government and others, we did what we had in our power to do. I do not see a scenario where this 2021 repeats something similar to what we experienced last year. Last year, we were facing something totally new that no one anywhere in the world had experienced. Today we already know not only how to take care of you, but also how to take care of ourselves, what health protocols to follow and that is why we have continued with our operation,
What was the most critical moment of the pandemic?
In itself, 2020 was the most complicated point. It was 365 days a year. The reality is that the challenge of the first stage of containment of our clients, where we told them “don’t pay us”, required liquidity efforts on our part and financial solvency.
We had to give the client this flexibility, but we also had to have the financial strength to be able to provide it. We had to have solid liquidity, we had to have solid capital, and fortunately we were able to do that.
Stage two of restructuring was also complicated. Those clients who after deferring did not restructure for whatever reason, we had to provision all these loans in advance. And this generated a very relevant economic impact. Furthermore, we incurred the first losses in our history to be able to be conservative and not only to be strongly with a very strong liquidity, with a very strong capital, but also with a very strong positioning.
Despite the economic consequence that this brings, I would say that in the second quarter it was complicated, financial health by having to give these benefits to our clients and also making the decision to take care of all our collaborators, not to reduce benefits, not to fire to anyone, taking care of our entire team was very important.
This 2021 we have the enormous responsibility of keeping the key to open credit for the economic reactivation of the country. And that is where we are going to work very hard.
What is happening in the popular sector, which is served by you? What do your customers see and feel?
The recovery is still being uneven on a state basis. There are states that are advancing faster than others. There are states that are also in a health situation different from others and this means that the recovery is being irregular and we believe that it will continue to be irregular throughout the first half of this year.
In what we managed to control the number of infections, in which vaccination programs are again deployed, since the economic reactivation will take place gradually. And what we hope is that it will be the second semester of this year and again with the traditional demand for credit, we will be able to reactivate growth.
There is a very large sector of clients that again require credit for working capital and that is where we believe we play a fundamental role.
Customers have been affected, but it is also true that business units as small as the Mexican microenterprise that employs one, two or three people are often very flexible. By selling basic need products, they can adapt in a very agile way to the economic conditions that arise in the country at different stages of the year.
Today’s clients have reinvented themselves, they have changed their line of business, they have looked for a way to get ahead. And it is, therefore, this attitude of struggle, of resilience, which really excites us all, because we believe that by joining efforts from that micro-entrepreneur with the banking system and with all the others, we can generate a greater economic dynamism that the country so requires.
How do you describe the relationship with the government?
I would say that it is a constant relationship where there are many points of interest from both parties, where both the federal government and the association of banks and all of us participants in the system are clear that it is through the financial system that we can give access to credit. for infrastructure projects, to detonate consumption, and in our case for microenterprises that at the end of the day are these sectors that detonate economic activity.
Therefore, both the government and we are interested in finding the best ways to align both the needs of the country, its projects with the financial viability of the same, to be able to join forces and that is through the sum of efforts of the public sector. and private that we can generate economic development in the country.
Does the government’s economic policy generate confidence for investment?
In order for there to be trust in the country, in any project, the first thing that there has to be is the rule of law, legal certainty. Because large infrastructure projects are very long-term projects, where you have to have total clarity, not only of the economic viability of the project over time, but also that the agreements that are signed will be maintained in the years to come.
Obviously this administration has tried to make adjustments and try to change things that could have been done better in the past. It is in this new way of seeing things that points of view meet and that they have to be through dialogue, through conversation, that they meet in order to continue advancing the great projects that the country requires at all levels. : municipal, state and federal.
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