Mexico City, Mexico, August 19, 2010—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has signed an agreement to support FinTerra in its efforts to develop advanced credit risk management tools, which will help the financial institution serve small and medium enterprises in Mexico’s rural areas.

In Mexico, financial services for small and medium enterprises represent an important vehicle for recovery from the financial crisis, which continues to hobble Mexico’s economy.  However, most financial services in Mexico are targeted to high income clients, leaving smaller businesses undercapitalized and unable to achieve healthy growth. Providing such enterprises with access to financial services is critical to their survival.

“This project with IFC will help us to further strengthen our credit risk management tools and take a leading position as an innovative lender to small and medium businesses in Mexico’s agribusiness sector,“ said Mark McCoy, CEO of FinTerra.

This project is framed into the IFC’s Small and Medium Enterprises Finance Program in Latin America and the Caribbean. The program aims to augment the level of credit being made available to smaller businesses and micro entrepreneurs across the region by providing participating financial institutions with a package of investment and targeted technical assistance aimed at increasing each institution’s ability to serve lower and middle income borrowers. The program is supported by the Spanish Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Greta Bull, IFC Regional Business Line Leader, said, “IFC seeks to improve access to finance for smaller businesses by providing needed technical assistance to local financial institutions. IFC is eager to continue supporting financial institutions like FinTerra with programs that help them build sound portfolios.”

IFC is also supporting FinTerra’s growth with a credit line of 15,000,000 Mexican pesos.

IFC’s overall strategy for Mexico focuses on enhancing competitiveness of the private sector, promoting investment in areas newly opened for private sector participation, encouraging sustainable social and environmental development, and promoting good corporate governance. IFC’s agribusiness strategy for Mexico aims to support smaller agribusiness companies, which have difficulties accessing bank credit.

About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries. We create opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives. We do so by providing financing to help businesses employ more people and supply essential services, by mobilizing capital from others, and by delivering advisory services to ensure sustainable development. In a time of global economic uncertainty, our new investments climbed to a record $18 billion in fiscal 2010. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.

About FinTerra
FinTerra is a leading non-bank financial institution in Mexico focused on lending to small and medium enterprises in the agribusiness sector, primarily producers of fruits, vegetables, grain crops, dairy, livestock, specialty crops as well as various agri-related businesses. Established in 2004, FinTerra currently has 11 branches located in 10 states of Mexico and a client base of over five hundred smaller businesses, providing working capital and long-term financing.  FinTerra also provides loans to thousands of small farmers through its grower financing programs.