Mexico is in the second position in financial technology services in Latin America. In 2018, 334 fintechs were counted, which puts the country behind Brazil, where there are 377 startups according to data from Fintech Radar.
The Law to Regulate Financial Technology Institutions (Ley Fintech) has allowed these companies to operate with greater confidence from users but has also limited their growth, especially in crowdfunding startups or collaborative funding.
Current fintech limits
Under the current terms of the law, Fintech cannot lend to an individual more than 50,000 Udis (313K pesos). Small and medium-sized companies have a cap of 1 million 670K Udis, equivalent to 10 million pesos.
These limits work well for some platforms. However, in fintech related to the real estate sector, this results in a significant limitation. For these startups, the law provides exceptions.
Platforms interested in expanding their limits must demonstrate quality in the study of their funding applicants, said Rocío Robles, in charge of supervision of Financial Technology Institutions and Novel Models of the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV).
“A mechanism is envisaged where the limit can be increased if authorization from the CNBV is requested and it is demonstrated that the customer’s due diligence mechanisms are excellent to avoid greater risks to investors. In that case, you can request (per project) up to 6 million 700K Udis, that is, 40 million pesos, ” said the official.
Even with the exceptions, these amounts may fall short. Alberto Padilla Luengas, general director of the platform for real estate development Briq, mentions that until now his biggest ticket has been 20 million pesos. “The day that bigger projects come, we do not want to be limited,” he said.