Certification Story - Pro Mujer Mexico

CERTIFICATION

STORY Pro Mujer Mexico

Smart Certification enabled Pro Mujer Mexico to live up to its values of empowering low-income women with high-quality, respectful and transparent services.

WHY SMART CERTIFICATION

Smart Certification is a way for financial service providers to demonstrate their commitment to client protection. To become certified, an institution must complete an independent, third-party evaluation of its policies and practices. Certification is the only truly global seal of an institution’s commitment to protecting economically vulnerable clients.

“Smart Certification is the first step in measuring your practices and improving upon them. We want to see all women thrive and feel valued.”

RODOLFO MEDRANO, GENERAL DIRECTOR, PRO MUJER MEXICO

About Pro Mujer Mexico In 2013, Pro Mujer Mexico was the first institution in Mexico to be awarded Smart Certification. Since its founding in 2011, Pro Mujer Mexico has grown to include 37 branches across eight states serving nearly 50,000 clients.

97 percent of its clients are low-income women entrepreneurs. The mission of Pro Mujer Mexico is to empower low-income women so they can achieve their full potential, and it envisions a Latin America where all women prosper.

Pro Mujer Mexico offers three main products to its clients: credit, financial education, and preventative healthcare services. By providing a combination of financial and non-financial services, Pro Mujer Mexico aims to support not only its clients’ bottom-line, but also their well being. Pro Mujer Mexico also plans to offer savings accounts in the near future, furthering its mission of empowering clients.

Benefits of Certification Pro Mujer Mexico initially pursued Smart Certification to distinguish itself from competitors in the market, as Smart Certification Manager José Osinaga Torres explains: “It is not easy to obtain Smart

2

THE SMART CAMPAIGN

Certification…not all institutions are able achieve it, so the certification allowed us to be elevated in the market, and it demonstrated our institutional strengths.”

While Smart Certification provides a competitive edge, allowing Pro Mujer Mexico to stand out in the Mexican market, they soon realized certification would also impact organizational operations in a positive and significant way. “Pro Mujer Mexico was already developing many practices of the Smart Campaign without knowing it,” according to Mr. Torres. “The certification process has meant the strengthening of client protection processes and formalization of many of them.

We practiced them before, but certification has allowed us to align them and give them a more formal procedure.”

Additional benefits of Smart Certification include:

••

Standard formal policies. Through certification, Pro Mujer Mexico replaced institutional guidelines with specific protocols and policies regarding client protection. This ensures that even if institutional leadership changes, clients will remain protected.

“Certification has meant the strengthening and formalization of our client protection processes.”

JOSÉ OSINAGA TORRES, SMART CERTIFICATION MANAGER, PRO MUJER MEXICO

••

Improved loan approval process. Pro Mujer Mexico previously used a simple loan approval process that did not require a credit check through the national credit bureau. As a result of Smart Certification, Pro Mujer Mexico now screens prospective clients through the credit bureau and limits the amount of debt they may carry before approving their loans.

••

Expanded customer service. Complaints resolution, technical assistance and general customer service were enhanced with Smart Certification. For example, Pro Mujer Mexico expanded its customer service network, quadrupling its call center staff and creating a smartphone app for customers to interact directly with loan officers. With these changes, Pro Mujer Mexico is more accessible than ever.

••

Strengthened client engagement. Pro Mujer Mexico also incorporated the Client Protection Principles (CPPs) into its financial education trainings for clients, thereby directly improving their skills in this area. By engaging both staff and clients around client protection issues, Pro Mujer Mexico is maximizing the impact of its certification.

PRO MUJER MEXICO CERTIFICATION STORY

••

Alignment of mission and practice.

Certification helped strengthen Pro Mujer Mexico’s commitment to its mission by embedding the CPPs into the culture of the institution. As a result of certification, Pro Mujer Mexico employees at all levels were trained on the CPPs and how to put them into practice.

With these new skills, staff report having more clarity about their roles and greater ability to serve clients. Additionally, Pro Mujer Mexico staff considers the CPPs when designing new products or policies, ensuring that client protections are built in from the start.

The Client Perspective Pro Mujer Mexico clients are reaping the benefits of Smart Certification as well, noting especially the privacy, transparency and respect with which services are delivered.

Maria de Lourdes Cantero Ortiz, the owner of an auto parts business, put it this way: “[Pro Mujer Mexico] is a transparent institution. It is a truthful institution. I think privacy is the most important thing the company can offer.”

Felicitas Carbajal Sanchéz, a blanket vendor, agrees that transparency about policies that were formalized through Smart Certification differentiates Pro Mujer Mexico. “When I was invited to join Pro Mujer Mexico, they explained the whole situation to us about the loan, the interest rate and everything. Everything was quite clear. I’ve never had a single question.”

3

“Pro Mujer Mexico teaches us how to be more productive with our money. They explain to us how much interest we have to pay and they tell us how we can reduce that interest rate.

Any questions we might have, we can call them on the phone and they provide answers.”

LAURA LILIANA ORTIZ BRIZUELA, OWNER OF A TEXTILES COMPANY

“We are giving clients the opportunities to grow as people,” said Smart Certification Manager José Osinaga Torres, and clients agree.

“Pro Mujer Mexico teaches us how to be more productive with our money,” Laura Liliana Ortiz Brizuela, owner of a textiles company said. “They explain to us how much interest we have to pay and they tell us how we can reduce that interest rate. Any questions we might have, we can call them on the phone and they provide answers.”

“Certification reflects what we are doing,” Rodolfo Medrano, Pro Mujer Mexico General Director said. “Our transparent client service approach improved. So, I think we are on this route of continuous improvement and certification has been useful to us.”

The Stakeholder Perspective Because of Smart Certification, Pro Mujer Mexico is more visible both domestically and on the international front. CONDUSEF, the government agency overseeing the treatment of financial

clients, congratulated Pro Mujer Mexico on its certification and other Mexican financial institutions have responded in admiration.

Mexico City Regional Manager Magdalena Montaño also noted that Smart Certification is “a comfort” to Pro Mujer Mexico donors and investors because it affirms that the institution is a good investment. It has also attracted the attention of new funding sources like Deutsche Bank, Lockfund and Triple Jump.

Learn More About Smart Certification Smart Certification provides an independent, objective seal of confidence that a financial institution is doing everything it can to treat its clients well and protect them from harm.

Learn more about the pathways to Certification and determine the best course of action for your institution at http://bit.ly/SmartCertification.

See more certification stories at www.smartcampaign.org.

ABOUT THE SMART CAMPAIGN

The Smart Campaign works globally to create an environment in which financial services are delivered safely and responsibly to low-income clients. As the world’s first financial consumer protection standard, the Campaign maintains a rigorous certification program, elevates the client voice, and convenes partners to effect change at the national level. Nearly 100 financial institutions, collectively serving more than 41 million people, have been certified for adhering to the Campaign’s industry-accepted consumer protection standards.

4

THE SMART CAMPAIGN