Mexico’s 6.3 million micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) generate nearly half of Mexico’s GDP and employ 37 percent of the workforce. Of MSMEs, 94.2 percent are microenterprises, and over half of these are women-owned or women-led. Despite this segment’s dominance in the economy, the majority of MSMEs transactions are still cash-based. In 2019, Women’s World Banking set out on a two-year journey to understand why MSMEs have not shown widespread digital finance adoption in Mexico. We began our inquiry by looking at the big picture and then moved on to deep qualitative research with Mexican women entrepreneurs to better understand their pain points and the financial ecosystem in which they operate.
Impact / Outcome
With few exceptions, the Mexican banking system remains focused on upper-middle-income customers. Financial services providers have largely seen digital transformation as an opportunity to better serve their existing upper-middle-income clientele—not as a way to reach the unbanked low-income customer segment. Financial services providers can take the following actions to advance digital payments for financial inclusion: Realize the commercial potential of reaching the low-income segment, Increase cash-to-digital access points, Design products for low-income users, Invest in in-person touchpoints to onboard new users, Co-create with Fintechs and, Ensure diversity and inclusion at all levels.
Funding sources
Private
Key Metrics
Improvements in usage of digital financial products and services
Operating model
Fully privateYear published
17 June 2021 
Women's World Banking NGOs and other non-profit