A bank for farmers in Mexico

In Mexico’s rural areas, the agricultural sector continues to be the central source of income and main food resource for many people. The finance institution Finterra focuses on lending to small to medium-sized agricultural enterprises and to SMEs operating in the food sector, which have a limited access to financial services offered by the major Mexican commercial banks.

DEG is now investing in the provider of agricultural finance with EUR 8.3 million, with which the bank plans to expand the services it offers to small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises and to add new business areas, such as factoring. At the start of the year, the finance institution was granted a full banking licence and started operating as Banco Finterra.

DEG is a long-standing partner of Finterra: in 2007, it provided the company with a first long-term loan. A second one was made available in 2012, in addition to several Business Support Services, which helped Finterra implementing an environmental and social management system and developing a credit scoring model. DEG also accompanied Finterra’s transition process to becoming a commercial bank.