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"WeCapital, a financial institution that works to promote the financial inclusion of low-income women in Mexico, launched an initiative designed to restore the credit histories of thousands of women.

According to the brand, 83% of Mexican women have no credit history, which blocks their access to bank loans for studying or starting a business. In order to rebuild the credit histories of low-income women and grant them access to the financial sector, WeCapital teamed up with DDB Mexico, Mexico City, to tap into the millions of unofficial credit records kept by shopkeepers throughout Mexico.

It’s common throughout Latin America for women to take out weekly or monthly store credits – the shopkeeper makes a note of each item a customer buys, and when they pay up. The problem with these records is that they are not recognised by the national financial information centres, leaving women without proof of their spending behaviour.

In an initiative called Data Tienda (Data Shop), WeCapital tapped into the accounting records of shopkeepers throughout Mexico, collecting the information from neighbourhood businesses and using it to build credit histories.
Once vetted, the shopkeepers’ records were converted into official credit histories. By December 2021, more than one hundred women had received their first microcredits for their businesses, and the scheme was expanded from Mexico City to other major cities, such as Puebla, Guadalajara, Morelia, and Monterrey."