The specialists highlighted that the government must promote and facilitate savings among bank users and make more transparent the use that users give to this bank that has cost at least 15,000 million pesos just in the construction of branches.
Estimates from the federal government highlight that the cost of each of the Banco del Bienestar branches is approximately 6 million pesos, taking into account ATMs, over-the-counter operations and computer equipment.
In the “ 100 steps to Transformation ” that Sheinbaum presented at the start of his government, point 18 highlights that they will seek to “strengthen the Banco del Bienestar as a social bank that promotes and facilitates savings” and move towards making it a financial institution.
To ensure that the Banco del Bienestar is an entity that fulfills the functions of a bank and not a disperser of social programs, it requires a lot of investment in technology so that both its app and its systems work.
Although there is no calculation that can determine how much money is required to make a bank like Bienestar perform functions like those of a commercial bank, Vicente Gómez, director of Financial Institutions at Moody’s Local, gave as an example what has been done. invested BBVA México – which is the largest bank in the country – in recent years.
Last May, during the National Meeting of Regional Advisors, BBVA Mexico reported that in 2023 it invested 20,000 million pesos, which were allocated to technology and physical infrastructure.
But the bank has made little transparency about the update of its banking core, that is, about the systems with which it operates, in addition to the fact that it has an app that, despite having a significant number of downloads on mobile devices, only works to consult the balance of the cards.
Moody’s Local also warned that another of this bank’s challenges, once the more than 3,000 branches are built, will be operating. “The challenge is to see that the model is sustainable with the 2% they charge. Operating in places that, for some reason, private banks do not get involved, is difficult,” he considered.
The development bank, as the Banco del Bienestar was initially, the fundamental work is to provide productive financing. For example: Banobras, which helps states and municipalities with infrastructure.
Nacional Financiera (Nafin), which supports SMEs and Bancomext, serves SMEs and export companies.
“The truth is you don’t have another type of bank there that encourages lending to people. How do you create an appetite for the lowest segment of the pyramid? It’s interesting, but it’s also risky,” added Moody’s Local.
The expert highlighted that the business of giving loans might sound simple, but the complexity lies in the collection, since it requires specialization, as well as knowledge of the market.
“A strong development bank is one that manages to have excess capital, that is, sufficient excess profitability to strengthen its capitalization and that no longer needs help from the government, that year after year turns the business around and can itself recapitalize,” he explained.
What should be one of the functions of the Welfare Bank?
Gabriela Zapata considered that, for the Banco del Bienestar to achieve financial inclusion work, it should have a connection with the SPEI of the Bank of Mexico to make transfers or focus on ensuring that the money people receive encourages savings and investment.
“To facilitate savings, it would be good, as the Banco del Bienestar has said, for deposits to remain within the bank and serve as a source of investment and savings for people,” agreed Vicente Gómez.
Zapata commented that in the former National Savings and Financial Services Bank (Bansefi) – now Banco del Bienestar – there was a Support Program to Strengthen and Promote Financial Inclusion (PAFIIF) with which people were trained in savings.
“The program had many problems, yes, but it was a program that was focused on ensuring that people had a greater relationship with the bank: that they saw it as a bank and not as a disperser of social programs, which was very difficult to achieve. ”he explained.
Both Zapata and Gómez considered that, although the government sought to implement the use of cards, it does not help bankarization if the effort does not go hand in hand with other measures.
“For many people, perhaps it is the first entry, that is, the first time they have a card in their hand, but at Moody’s Local we think of it very similar to a remittance, it is a resource that you have and consume; It is not invested, it is not deposited and then that does not expand banking coverage,” Gómez added.
Is hope in the Financiera del Bienestar?
In recent days it was announced that Financiera del Bienestar, in addition to continuing to disperse remittances from Mexicans living abroad, will also help provide financing and collect loans that were given during the pandemic, known as word loans.
In remittance, the Financiera has distributed 77,000 cards, through which shipments of 12 million dollars have been made.
Zapata said that one of the advantages of Financiera del Bienestar is its extensive nationwide coverage, especially in places where “there is no Oxxo.” However, the challenge is once again effective collection.
