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[Fred93]

December 24th 2007 issue of Business Week.
Page  38.

Story of microlending in Mexico. 

[pioneer11]

Here is a linky for those of us too cheap or too tapped out by Christmas to buy the magazine.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_52/b4064038915009.htm

[SGriff]

They still haven't reached the level of US Payday lenders. I don't see where this is news, honestly...

[Cushie]

If you look up a few threads I also posted about this and a few other microlending/p2p lending articles on BW.  I'm thinking if there's any publication that might be interested in our story I suspect it might be BW.

[bankomatic]

Very interesting read, I learned a lot of things about lending in Mexico from it, and it also make me wonder about a few things. With APR of 110% on these micro loans and with very low default rates of 1%, as they say, why isn't there more competition among lenders to drive the interest down? The only reasonable explanation for such high APR and low competition is that there is big government beuracracy preventing entry into lending by other lenders, or that the profit on these loans is actually a lot lower than the APR.

Few things about loans in there are just amazing. Like that they don't disclose your APR to you, and that your interest payments actually don't go down as you pay back the principle on your loan, and that it seems like all loans to the poor are secured in a sense that they actually go and take your stuff if you default. Great place to lend.

[Senator]

You, my friend, don't understand Meconomics.  I've learned, by frequenting Tijuana for the last decade or so, is that when business is down you INCREASE your prices to your remaining customers to make up for it.

[Cheerful_Lender]

You, my friend, don't understand Meconomics.  I've learned, by frequenting Tijuana for the last decade or so, is that when business is down you INCREASE your prices to your remaining customers to make up for it.

Meconomics - nice!  I think I need to sign up for a class.