De Fiado en Fiado: Credit to Bridge Expenses in Mexico Financial Diaries Households

This report, De Fiado en Fiado ("From Credit to Credit"): Credit to Bridge Expenses in Mexico Financial Diaries Households, explores the implications of poverty on credit decisions through key findings from the Mexico Financial Diaries project. This paper looks into the means by which credit currently plays a role in bridging expenses for Mexico Financial Diaries households, and where a need exists for better-designed credit products which can help low-income Mexican households reach important goals.

The Mexico Financial Diaries tracked 185 households over the course of 14 months from November 2013 to January 2015. The project aimed to shed light on how low-income Mexican families manage their money and the unique constraints they face. The research was conducted in three sites: the outskirts of Mexico City, peri-urban Puebla, and rural Oaxaca.

The Mexico Financial Diaries project was supported by funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank to the Banco del Ahorro Nacional y Servicios Financieros (BANSEFI), and the report was funded by a grant from the MetLife Foundation.