Pahola Vazquez
Ricardo Mijares
Arturo Martinez
Adria Martinez
Javier Huesca
EGADE Business School Tecnologico de Monterrey
Consuelo Garcia-de-la-torre
Francisco Layrisse
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Banregio is committed to sustainability as it forms a fundamental part of its business operations. In Banregio, sustainability is defined as the creation of social, environmental and economic value for their stakeholders and the communities where they are present. It is a strategy linked to the core activity of the business and therefore is aligned with the mission, purpose and values of the company. Banregio focus its innovation in three purposes; financial health, social programs and operating efficiency.
Banregio seeks to promote the creation of employment and wealth to ensure the growth of communities. The bank pursues the financial inclusion of traditionally unattended segments. They focus their efforts on personal accompaniment to entrepreneurs for sustainable growth and finances with a gender perspective, specially with two programs: Banregio Mentoring program and Clara.
The Clara Program began to take shape in March 2017, when within Banregio a communication effort became a financial inclusion program.
Clara is an education platform that brings financial knowledge closer to people who want to improve their relationship with money, through a community that shares stories with respect and without judgment. Within this space you will discover experiences, workshops, articles and courses, told with a clear, direct voice and without intimidating words. Clara is a new way of learning about finances together. Initially this innovation was focused in the entrepreneur women and women willing to know about finance independence. Derived from the success of the program, currently Clara is an open platform to any person interested in aims to help you find your own path to financial freedom.
With that same energy, Banregio is convinced that accompanying small and medium size companies (PyMEs), in their projects and ideas, can help to improve the live of individuals and communities across the country. Inspired by this, Banregio Mentoring Program seeks to support PyMEs to generate economic growth and business sustainability that impacts positively in Mexico.
The initiatives encourage growth, innovation and productivity in development of companies in any area, regardless of whether or not they are customers of the bank and at no cost, since the Mentoring Program is totally gratuitous.
"The road has been full of surprises, challenges and the main lesson has been that the relationship with money is built through actions, every day and on your own terms."
The inspiration of Banregio is to create social, environmental and economic value for their stakeholders and the communities where the company has presence. It is a strategy linked to the core activity of the business and therefore is aligned with the mission, purpose and values of the company.
In words of Ingrid Bueno, Manager of Sustainability in Banregio, the initiatives "seeks to create alliances that allow the network of action of the initiatives to grow and become agents of change for the community".
In 2020 Banregio signed the Principles for Responsible Banking promoted by UNEP-FI together with financial entities around the world. In this way, they commit theirselves to sustainable development, taking actions in favor of the environment and education, from the financial activity itself.
Their fist action, as a part of these principles, was to carry out an analysis of the positive and negative impacts of their personal and corporate credit portfolio. Based on this, they identified the key areas and established responsible banking commitments, materialized in actions that are related to their Sustainability Model. They monitor the degree of progress through a selection of indicators, for which they set annual targets.
Banking is a development engine for the country, and by concentrating its operation on serving small and medium-sized enterprises Banregio promotes the creation of employment and the distribution of wealth to ensure the growth of the communities. Likewise, due to its institutional values, humane and openness, the bank pursues the financial inclusion of traditionally neglected segments.
In addition to the operation of the business, they have offer of non-financial services that provides personal support to entrepreneurs so that they achieve sustainable growth with Banregio Mentoring program and education in personal finance focused on gender through their platform Clara.
Since its launch in March 2019, Clara Banregio has supported more than 1,000 women by increasing their confidence in managing their own money through a number of events and courses. Since COVID-19, Clara became 100% digital through online courses, website, and social media. In 2020 they launched 3 online courses training more than 258 students, 56% woman, in topics such as saving in times of crisis, budgeting and retirement plans. There are 1,515 registered users, 72% woman. 614 woman were enrolled in courses of financial health. By 2021, the goal is to train 1,200 women in personal finance through the platform. The Clara progam has received in 2019 and 2020 the Financial Alliance For Woman Recognition.
The Banregio Mentoring program was launched in 2016 and has assessed more than 1,231 micro, small and medium companies to increase their sales and generate/retain employment. During COVID-19, a shorter version of the program was launched to increase the number of participants. Since March 2020, the program has helped more than 100 business owners design a short-term plan for surviving the pandemic, 44% of them are women owned businesses. The program has triggered out more than 800 jobs and has generated more than 840 Millons of Mexican Pesos in increasing sales.
The Banregio Mentoring Program and Clara have had great impact on the life of people and companies, strengthening the foundations for solid and sustainable growth either to make strategic decisions based on to a correct reading of the financial statements until establishing human resources policies important and necessary for better development professional people.
Thanks to these efforts on education and inclusion, for the past two years, there has not been any reclamation nor sanction related to Banregio's responsibility on the financial health of their customers.
On the other hand, thanks to the digitalization of their programs, the bank has expanded their reach to 18 more states in the country, increasing their customers, their perception on the market and also, gained more customers for their new digital banking platform "Hey Banco".
The credit programs indirectly linked to the Mentoring and Clara Program have also grown, showing the following results for 2020:
In 2017 Banregio launched a financial education platform to answer their commitment with the 4th Sustainable Development Goal, offering quality financial content. This program allows people to access their experts at the bank´s knowledge, thus helping them find their way to financial independence.
When this Social Resposability project began, they noticed the great response, specially in women. Through Clara Banregio, they promote equal economic rights in women.
This is how Clara became a platform for education and financial inclusion with the gender perspective that offers: workshops, digital material for consultation, opinion articles based on real experiences and a community where they share money stories with respect and without judgment. It is a space to express doubts and personal experiences with clear, direct voice and without intimidating words.
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Banco Regional de Monterrey S.A., Banregio, was founded in 1994 in Monterrey, Mexico, as a Banking Institution focused on serving the financial needs of Small and Medium Size Businesses. Formed by a group of Bankers with wide experience in the industry, Banregio quickly positioned itself as a serious player in the market. Banregio is present in 22 federal entities through a 156 branches network.
Banregio's vision is to be a bank in sintony with the community, with the purpose of ensuring the success of their customers. The bank seeks to create alliances that allows them to grow the network and scope of their initiatives and become change agents for the community.