Goldman Boosts Credit Line for Mexicoâs Konfio to $160 Million
Feb 25 2021, 9:50 PM
February 25 2021, 8:26 PM
February 25 2021, 9:50 PM
(Bloomberg) Goldman Sachs Group Inc is increasing a credit line to Mexican financial technology firm Konfio Ltd. to support the startup in its bid to disrupt traditional lending practices in Latin Americaâs second-largest economy.
(Bloomberg) Goldman Sachs Group Inc is increasing a credit line to Mexican financial technology firm Konfio Ltd. to support the startup in its bid to disrupt traditional lending practices in Latin Americaâs second-largest economy.
Goldman will provide $160 million of support for Konfio to draw from, up from an earlier pledge of $100 million, the Mexico City-based company said in an statement. The credit extension will allow Konfio to increase the number of loans it gives to small and medium-sized companies.
Medellin, Colombia – As Arussi Unda watched videos of empty Mexico City metro cars and shuttered businesses just one month ago, it felt as if Mexican women had made history.
Unda, a leader of the feminist organisation Brujas del Mar, was one of the organisers of the country’s National Women’s Strike on March 9, when 6.6 million women did not leave the house to show the Latin American country what society would look like without women.
“It seemed like a movie. Honestly, I couldn’t believe it,” the 32-year-old activist said. “I don’t remember anything like this ever happening before. We saw women with very different ideologies, socioeconomic statuses, living in very different realities, united under one call: ‘Stop killing up, stop raping us. ”
Stori raises $32.5M in a Lightspeed-led Series B to build Mexico’s credit card for the masses
While credit cards are commonplace in the United States, they are far less ubiquitous in many other countries, particularly those in Latin America. In Mexico in particular, cash remains the dominant method of payment, with an estimated 86% of all payments being in the form of cash.
But card usage is growing as more people are shopping online than ever before. According to one recent study, Mexico topped the list of the world’s fastest growing e-commerce markets. Meanwhile, only 37% of Mexicans over 15 years old have a bank account, according to recent World Bank stats.
Mexico Lower Houses Passes Power Sector Bill Favoring State-Owned CFE
Mexico’s lower congressional house in the wee hours of Wednesday morning approved a controversial bill that would upend the rules governing the electric power sector, giving generation assets owned by state-owned Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) priority in the dispatch order over private sector generators.
The chamber approved the bill to modify Mexico’s bedrock electricity law, the Ley de Industria Eléctrica, by a margin of 289 to 152, with one legislator abstaining.
The proposed law would give priority in the dispatch order first to CFE’s hydroelectric plants, then to its fuel-oil, nuclear, geothermal and combined-cycle natural gas-fired plants, regardless of cost, according to a primer on the bill published by EY Mexico analysts. Private sector generators would be relegated to the end of the dispatch order.
Vaccine Delays Threaten Economies Hardest Hit by Pandemic
Andrew Rosati, Bloomberg News A healthcare worker carries a container of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines at a health clinic in Bogota, Colombia, on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. Colombia will begin vaccine rollout against Covid-19 after the nation received 50,000 Pfizer doses. , Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) Latin America and the Caribbean, the region where the coronavirus caused the worst economic destruction and more than a quarter of the worldâs deaths, is now falling victim to a slow inoculation campaign.
Political fights and production bottlenecks are stymieing Brazilâs vaccination efforts. Mexico is struggling to source doses as its death toll surpasses Indiaâs. Colombia only began administering shots last week.