Analysis of the Use of Financial Services by Companies in Mexico: What does the 2009 Economic Census tell us?

Abstract

In this article, we present a descriptive analysis of the results of the 2009 Economic Census regarding the use of bank credit and accounts by productive entities (companies). To this end, INEGI was requested to prepare a set of statistics regarding various company characteristics that are relevant to the decisions made by institutions offering banking services. Upon request, this information was grouped according to the different business segments we defined based on their access to credit and/or use of banking services, in order to determine the size of the market for financial services like credit or bank accounts (checking, savings or investment). Also upon request, the information was provided in segments according to the stratum of employed personnel to establish 4 company sizes: Micro (0 to 10 employees), Small (11 to 50 employees), Medium (51 to 250 employees) and Large (251 or more employees). The information above enabled the size of the market for credit and attracting customers to be established in 2008 Mexico and to identify the materiality of the phenomena of \"voluntary rationing\" and \"involuntary rationing\" (Stiglitz and Weiss, 1981). As a result of involuntary rationing, in that year, a potential credit market of approximately 1.5 million companies and a potential market for bank accounts of 1.1 million were established. Involuntary rationing is a phenomenon that mostly impacts smaller companies and is more pronounced in the context of the use of bank accounts than in that of credit.