The pandemic caused changes in: our mobility, behavior, doing business, the way we work and has forced us to use new tools to continue with contact and communication, this was considered by Horacio González Mejía, president of the Board of Directors. of the Chiapas Development Credit Union (UNIDESARROLLO).
From his office in Tuxtla Gutiérrez in ChiapasEngineer González, as the whole team tells him, attended the interview with El Economista via Zoom. Remembering what happened during the confinement, he said that one of the aspects that did affect the fact that they could no longer have the physical closeness between the partners.
“When we saw that the staff began to have difficulties due to the contagion, both the operational team and the management team were at a distance. What we did was create a communication platform and also a virtual application ”, González mentioned.
He said that at UNIDESARROLLO, 6 colleagues were infected with Covid-19 and one of them, unfortunately, died. “In addition, we also lost a member, also in the group of members, because of the viral disease, among the bad things, one of the strategies that we implemented starting the confinement was the acquisition of life insurance and medical expenses for the members and we are evaluating acquiring it also for the personnel ”.
After confinement
Horacio González said that they are currently working in a hybrid way, “we continue to control, sanitize, maintain protection with face masks, take temperature and clean hands before entering the facilities. Likewise, through the communication platform we have held the Board meetings and our Assembly was also held in a hybrid way, part remote and in person, but very restricted ”.
“The pandemic It moved us many things, we have to do reviews of paperwork, rules, regulations, it boosted our resilience and creativity also emerged ”.
Strategies
The president of the Board of Directors of the Union said that in February 2020 they already perceived that there would be an impact by Covid-19, however, they never imagined the dimension.
”The management team met and we even anticipated the Special Accounting Criteria (CCE) implemented by the National Baking and Stock Commission, since we had to make a series of decisions to support the partners, so we began the review with each of the partners, to detect if they had problems, or what was the dimension of the liquidity or financial problems that could be generated ”.
They began to renew credits with some partners, they were already in the delinquency rate and established to give them a few months of grace, renew credits, grant liquidity to the partners, since it is not a problem of a sector, but a national and global problem, as well that when the CNBV published the CCE, they did not take it and they adapted to what they had.
He explained that in the second half of 2020 they decided to maintain the partner support strategy and decided to give them a new way of negotiating. “We decided to create new business models, through an app, a web page to support us, either through barter, seeking to shield ourselves economically, financially, operatively, in management and in corporate governance.”
He mentioned that what was achieved is the support between partners. “The liquidity of one with the lack of liquidity of the other, to feel supported by their entity, in addition to the fact that we all know each other.”
Financing
González mentioned that one of the sectors hardest hit by the crisis is construction, a sector that affects other areas of the economy, as well as foreign transport that was also affected by the lack of mobility, although it already shows signs of recovery.
“Commerce was affected in certain areas, while services and agriculture were not felt so much,” said Horacio González Mejía.
He explained that taxpayers were the ones who fell the most in arrears or had problems.
On the other hand, the Trusts Established in Relation to Agriculture (FIRA) through BanBajío and Bx + have already authorized them a line of credit for 50 million pesos. “It’s a good line for us to begin with because we’ve always worked with partner loans.”
Due to the regulations of the CNBV, UNIDESARROLLO has restricted the amount that partners have to invest. “In 2020 there were no new partners, but a few days ago, five new ones joined, that encourages us to have a better spirit,” concluded Horacio González Mejía.
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