Innovation

For CrediClub, innovation means to prove new things, to create new product lines and also improve existing processes, take advantage of new technologies, as well as having a flat hierarchical organization.

CrediClub has different programs that fit the needs of its customers, with Mujer Activa being the leading product in lending and SuperTasas.com its main savings product.

For the creation of SuperTasas.Com, they took as reference the best practices from countries in Europe, Canada, and Australia. It operates like the new types of banks that have taken part in the market, called "direct banking." This initiative offers the highest savings rates in Mexico, ranging from 6.5% to 11% depending on the time frame of the investment. This return can be achieved thanks to the use of technology that allows a good corporate structure to save costs since there are no branches and therefore no need for extra allocation of resources. This form of savings offers a payment 5 times higher than the average offered by banks.

Also with this fintech scheme it is easy to get a loan. The rate that CrediClub charges can range between 11.9% to 26%, and on average it is 17% without commissions, lower compared to the 32% offered by most banks. Another innovation that it offers is that they don’t charge the same rate to people with different credit profiles. Unlike other banks, this means that if you are a good payer, you’ll be rewarded with lower rates. Credits may go from $10,000 up to $200,000 Mexican Pesos.

Another product scheme is solidarity groups. This is a powerful tool to bring credit to the neediest people who are looking for economic support or to grow their business. Given the lack of assets that support them or a good credit report, a group of people (12 or more, mainly women) are collateral for each other; the benefit is that among them they help with the credit analysis, approving their own friends.

This lending program is called Mujer Activa, Active Woman, where mostly women participate. Additionally, Mejora tu Vivienda, improving your home, is a supplementary credit to Mujer Activa to repair, expand or remodel a house.

CrediClub also has a financial education program within 24 training workshops that help people understand how and why to set financial goals and a budget, types of financial services and their appropriate uses, the purpose of saving and the products available, the responsibility associated with obtaining a loan, as well as choosing an appropriate financial institution and identifying the costs associated with financial products and remittances.

Inspiration

When Juan Francisco Fernandez, the CEO of the company CrediClub, was younger, he spent most of his time with his grandfather. His grandfather was a hardworking man. He started working in a Mexican company called Cerveceria Cuautemo, and he worked for more than 50 years there.

Juan Francisco remembered that his grandfather always took him to Cerveceria Cuauthemoc because that place was amazing for workers, it has pools and green areas that workers can use to spend a nice afternoon with their families, after working hours. When his grandfather took him as a child, Juan remembered that he always saw a magazine on the front desk of the entrance called Work and Savings.

The CEO of Cerveceria Cuauthemoc, Eugenio Garza la Güera, was an entrepreneur and an icon of the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, México. His grandfather had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Eugenio, and in that conversation Mr. Eugenio told him that the key to success is to work hard and save, that if he worked and saved money he would be able to give to his family a better quality of life. Those words stayed in his grandfather's heart and applied all his life. Those important words “Work and Saving” were taught to Juan Francisco, and he applied them to create the company.

Overall impact

The impact of the company can be divided into two parts or projects. First is to lend money to people with low incomes at a very low interest rate so they can start to create their own small businesses or grow existing ones. Second is to teach people with low incomes how to save money. These projects have been in place since 2009. With these projects, CrediClub gives 20,000 loans each month, and each day more people have access to an affordable way of financing to increase their income. With savings products, it provides a way to maintain and increase their wealth.

Business benefit

CrediClub is a profitable organization. It has better than industry Return on Assets and Delinquency rates. Investors are confident in the company, and this was reflected in the last capital increase and the credits granted by national financial institutions. It has the regime of Popular Financial Society, SOFIPO, is under the regulation of the National Banking and Securities Commission, CNBV, and savings are protected by the National Institute for Savings Protection, IPAB. Also, it has been recognized as a Great Place to Work and one of the best companies in Mexico by Deloitte, CitiBanamex and the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, ITESM.

Social and environmental benefit

In Mexico, only 3.4% of Mexicans have a savings fund. This figure is lower than the countries El Salvador or Peru (El Economista, 2014). CrediClub's philosophy is to develop a culture of work hard and save in the community to increase that number, where the savers will act as investors and the capital saved will be to finance the different small businesses that belong to the members of the community so that they can transform them, remodel their homes and improve their quality of life.

Interview

Juan Francisco Fernández, CEO