Bansefi: Best Social Impact Bank Mexico 2016

Banks can – and do – make a big impact on their surroundings. In Mexico, Bansefi proves that point with an all-inclusive approach that underwrites the nation’s development drive by empowering businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises that all too often struggle in gaining access to premier financial services.

Bansefi – Banco de Ahorro Nacional y Servicios Financieros (National Savings and Financial Services Bank) – maintains a sharp focus on communities ignored or underserved by commercial banks. The bank maintains a network of close to 430 branches that reaches into the farthest corner of the country and which serves over eleven million customers.

Bansefi pioneered a number of programmes aimed at extending banking services to people of modest means. Already in 2002, the bank introduced L@Red de la Gente (The People’s Network) that provides easy access to both domestic and international money transfers, insurance products, and payment services. The network is present in over a thousand towns and rural localities with more than 2,700 outlets.

By bridging the banking gap, Bansefi has given literally millions of Mexicans convenient access to formal and high-quality financial services. As such, the bank has been instrumental in helping fight poverty and social exclusion. Bansefi also operates and supports a number of initiatives that promote financial literacy. Thus far, over a million people have partaken in workshops and comprehensive courses that impart the tools and knowledge necessary to escape the poverty trap and avoid costly mistakes while doing so. The bank expects seven million people to attend its workshop by the middle of 2017.

Bansefi was an early adopter of technology to broaden its institutional footprint. The bank develops and maintains a fully scalable high-tech platform that forms the backbone of its vast network. As a social development bank, Bansefi offers microloans to subsistence farmers and small traders and businesspeople that enable people to break the cycle of poverty and get ahead under their own power.

The CFI.co judging panel is impressed by the way Bansefi fulfils its corporate mandate. With a solid infrastructure, a dedicated and highly professional management and support team, and a nation-building mission, Bansefi transcends the financial world as it binds and unites Mexican society. The judges are honoured to offer Bansefi the 2016 Best Social Impact Bank Mexico Award.