• YEAR: Mexico’s top three national development banks (Banobras, Banamex, and NAFIN) issued loans for USD 29.4 billion in 2019 -the lowest number in 5 years- reflecting the contraction of the Mexican economy and a change in internal rules along with the layoff of key personnel.
• DECLINE: According to Government figures, the bank with the sharpest fall was infrastructure lender Banobras, whose lending contracted in 54% due to a delay in public spending and the cuts in budget transfers from the federal government to state and local governments, according to experts.
• GROWTH: “This was surely influenced by the (lack of) growth of the economy. Also, the (low) expectations for growth lowered the demand for loans from development banks”, said Gustavo Del Angel, an economics professor at CIDE. The decline in lending for 2018 was 17%.
• MERGER: Early in his Administration, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador presented a proposal to merge state-run lenders Bancomext (focused on export industries) and Nafin (all types of industry) as part of a cost-cutting effort, which is moving forward at a slow pace.
