The People's Microbank, Mexico

This field note describes USAID's findings about Caja Popular Mexicana (CPM), which is the country's largest savings and loan cooperative, offering financial services to 24 of 31 Mexican states.

The note provides the following details about CPM:

• Was formed in 1995;
• Is headquartered in Leon;
• Has 26 decentralized branches called plazas;
• Has 329 branches called sucursales;
• Has 43% of its branches located in towns having less than 20,000 inhabitants.

Further discussing CPM, the note also provides some facts as under:

• In December 2001, CPM sought assistance from the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) for consolidation of its operations and efficient management of the cooperative. In 2002, January WOCCU started working with CPM;
• In August 2003, CPM began distributing remittances through WOCCU's International Remittance Network (IRnet), which was linked to electronic transfer of money to agents in USA. This is operating successfully through the credit unions;
• CPM's remittance service, Pagomax, is easily accessible; 92% of the receivers are women and they are mostly CPM members.

In the years of partnership with WOCCU CPM has achieved the following:

• Membership has doubled;
• Assets have increased by 50%;
• Savings have grown by 45%;
• Outstanding loan portfolio has increased by 71%;
• Youth membership grew to 73% between 2001 and 2004.

Finally, the note emphasizes on CPM's success in maintaining a tight focus on efficiency and profitability. It also commends CPM's efforts to launch new products designed to attract new members.