July was not any month for Piura box. Coinciding with its 43th anniversary, the institution reached the greatest monthly utility in its history. This was known Javier Bereche ÁlvarezPresident of the Board of Directors of the entity.
For an institution that for two decades was absolute leader of Peruvian microfinance, this milestone symbolizes more than numbers: it is the confirmation that the new management, initiated in September 2024, is giving results.
The recipe behind this achievement, Bereche summarizes it in six strategic axes:
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Spend less and better,
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Reduce high -risk portfolio.
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Prison surpluses.
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Order the operation of Caja Sullana,
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Recover the ASA certification in risk management,
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and hold utilities with long -term vision.
With this compass, the entity seeks to navigate an agitated sea: a Peru with 75% informality, high climatic vulnerability and a financial system that is aimed at consolidation.
Caja Piura understood something key: credit in Peru no longer moves as before. “Today the Peruvian uses less to credit cards and prefers mortgage or guaranteed loans, such as own roof or my home. Real estate financing and work credits backed with real guarantees also grew strongly,” explains Javier Bereche Álvarez.
The box decided to listen to the customer more and launch products aligned with the current demand. Thus, initiatives were born as its own fact, my home, the drip credit, the entrepreneurial women’s credit for the rural area, the panderito inspired by the culture of collective savings; and green products such as biocrédito and aquacredit for the Amazon.
This is innovation with local identity: solutions designed for farmers, merchants and entrepreneurs who are rarely attended by the great bank.
Inclusion that stamps
If there is a seal that distinguishes Caja Piura, it is its presence in territories where others do not arrive. In the north and the Amazon, they have resumed their mobile bank.
Not only do they place credits: they teach basic finances, formalize small businesses and accompany customers who still do not have the Internet. The result: 15% of their informal customers have already been formalized.
More than half of Piura Caja operations are already digital. Its app offers the experience of a first level bank, with the promise of an agile and safe service.
Another key aspect is their presence where others do not arrive.
“We, first, are leaders in northern Peru, from Huacho to Tumbes. In that area our institution enjoys leadership and customer preference, especially in rural areas. We are very focused on agriculture and throughout the chain of agricultural products. In the same way, we are also leaders in the country’s Amazon: Mother of God, Ucayali, Loreto, Amazonas and San Martín. The first preference of Peruvians because, in addition, we acquired the former Caja Rural San Martín, who attended these Amazonian towns, “says Javier Bereche Álvarez in an interview with Peru21.
In this way, he indicates, “we also reach limited access territories and there we exercise financial inclusion, with enough teaching in terms of formalization.”
The Peruvian informal sector, which represents around 75% of the business fabric, is also an audience that Caja Piura arrives strongly.
“We teaching this segment to encourage it to formalize under two motivations: first, offer credit that doubles its working capital, which translates into greater sales and profits; and second, by formalizing, giving access to mortgage credit with their own roof in housing. Thanks to this, we have achieved that about 15% of the informal fabric with which we work is formalized,” he says.
Customers, all are star
Caja Piura offers a first -class face -to -face and digital service, comparable to the best of the Peruvian banking system, which makes its proposal very attractive.
The entity serves farmers, merchants, supplies markets, productive chains such as fishing, students, entrepreneurs and the informal sector, which it drives towards formalization.
In addition, it promotes specific initiatives such as water and irrigation credits, programs for women entrepreneurs and biocréditos oriented to agriculture.
“Each of our portfolios has a purpose: understand Peruvians and offer them solutions to their measure,” he says ..
Prepared for the future
The immediate challenge of Caja Piura is to keep the pace. The institution projects 7% in placements this year, supported by the Christmas campaign that seeks to mobilize more than 300 million soles in credits. At the same time, he has completed alliances with IDB Invest (USA) for sustainable funding and with the French Development Agency (AFD) for green financing and liabilities restructuring, while moving forward in negotiations with Rabobank (Holland).
With these international levers, microfinance not only seeks to reduce costs and strengthen its heritage, but also shield before the inevitable consolidation of the Peruvian microfinance system, a process that has already been seen in Chile, Mexico and Spain.
For Javier Bereche Álvarez, president of the Board of Directors, the course is clear: “Our commitment is with the Peruvians who undertake, who produce and who need opportunities. We want Caja Piura to remain its strategic partner, both in the countryside and in the city, both in credit and in inclusion.”
With historical profits, innovation of products and the sustainability of sustainability, Caja Piura prepares to write a new stage in the history of the microfinance of Peru.
