Financiera Confianza, S.A.A. (Financiera Confianza) is the fruit of a merger in 2013 between Caja Nuestra Gente and the former Financiera Confianza, two institutions with a long history in the Peruvian microfinance sector. Caja Nuestra Gente was created within the framework of BBVAMF in 2008 as a result of the merger between three institutions: Caja Nor Perú, Caja Sur and Edpyme Crear Tacna. Financiera Confianza, meanwhile, originated in 1992 with the purpose of helping micro-entrepreneurs in the central part of the country to flourish.
Financiera Confianza has the mission of driving sustainable and inclusive economic and social development for the most disadvantaged people in society through Responsible Productive Finance.
Financiera Confianza is run with the help of 2,168 employees and is the only microfinance institution with a national footprint, with its 153 offices and the greatest rural reach. It services half a million clients, offering a range of financial products and services to accompany the growth of the most vulnerable.
The institution also offers its clients financial education through its group credit Woman's Word (Palabra de Mujer), and its program Savings for All (Ahorro para Todos). In 2015, moreover, Financiera Confianza stopped charging the inter-regional fee, with the result that its clients’ deposits and withdrawals are free of charge wherever in the country they take place.
Financiera Confianza won the Citi Microcredit Award for the most Innovative Financial Institution of the year in 2015 thanks to the Savings for All program.
Martín Naranjo
General Manager
Ana Cecilia Akamine
Deputy General Manager, Finance
Martín Santa María
Deputy General Manager, Sales
Socorro Heysen
Deputy General Manager, Economic Studies
Pilar Flores
Deputy General Manager, Risks
Bárbara Castro
Deputy General Manager, Legal Services
Luis Escalante
Deputy General Manager, Human Resources
Jorge Palomino
Deputy General Manager, Infrastructure & IT Resources
Dante Cornejo
General Auditor
Ramón Feijóo
President
Elizabeth Matilde Ventura
Vice-president
Ignacio Rojas-Marcos
Director
Mª Mercedes Gómez
Director
Javier Flores
Director
Luis José Giove
Director
Carlos Héctor Alayza
Director
Most Innovative Financial Institution of the year. Financiera Confianza received this Premic 2015 award in Peru for its product “Savings for All” which brings financial education and formal savings to low-income families in rural areas.
Finalist in Peru’s Business Creativity Award, organized by the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences in the category “Banking, Financial and Insurance Services”, which includes the products and services of banking institutions, fund management firms and insurance companies and in the category of “Innovative Communication”, recognizing innovation in the medium, the form, the message and the delivery of communication, as well as the creativity applied in reaching the target audiences. It encompasses all types of media and advertising.
The slowdown in Peruvian economic growth, apparent since 2014, continued, completing 2015 at around 2.5%, 60% less than the average for the last 10 years, when the economy grew at a rate of 6.1% p.a. There was a clear differentiation in performance over the year depending on the sector. Primary sectors were the most dynamic, growing by 5.3%, supported by greater production of copper and by the agriculture and fishing sectors.
In all, primary sectors were responsible for 64% of the economy’s total growth over the year, of which 70% was accounted for by performance in the metal mining sector which grew by 12.3%, thanks to greater copper production, which expanded by 25% as a result of improved results from the Toromocho and Constancia fields, while zinc grew by 8%.
Within the primary sector, fishing did particularly well, increasing by around 18.7%, thanks to higher anchovy catches resulting from having one more season than in 2014, causing a 65% expansion, which in turn impacted on a 63% growth in fish meal.
Non-primary sectors, meanwhile, increased by 2%; the 3% contraction in manufacturing and the 7% fall in construction were offset by stronger performance in trade and services, which expanded by around 4%.
Poor manufacturing performance was mainly a result of the fall in products for exports, as well as in the production of inputs and goods. Construction dropped sharply because of low levels of execution in public works and a slowdown in property developments.
The Peruvian economy’s domestic demand grew less strongly in 2015, by 2.3%, nearly half of which is accounted for by inventory formation; after discounting this, domestic demand only increased by 1.2%. The contribution made by inventories is greater than the average over the last 10 years. Inventories showed growth of around 200%, due to a lag between the mining production cycle and exports.
By expenditure components, performance in public investment was weak, contracting by 12%, principally due to the sub-national component. Private-sector investment shrank by 6%, a result of the fall in the terms of trade impacting business confidence, which was at its lowest level since 2009, and consequently postponed major projects.
Private consumption improved by 3.2%, while public consumption increased by 6.9%, both components showing a slowdown over 2014. Household consumption adjusted in line with the labor market’s performance, which recorded an increase in the unemployment rate from 5.9% in 2014 to 6.2% in 2015, and was also affected by higher inflation in real household income and deteriorating labor market conditions: despite the fall in underemployment by hours, underemployment by income is actually increasing. The adjustment in consumption was less than would be expected from these components since it was supported by the surge in household consumer credit, with their levels of indebtedness subsequently rising.
As mentioned above, the global economy grew more sluggishly in 2015, as a result of the slower rate of expansion by emerging economies, impacted among other factors by slowing growth in China, which accounts for nearly half the world’s demand for copper.
There was a generalized correction in the price of raw materials which in the case of Peru are particularly significant: copper, zinc and gold. Copper slumped by around 25% over the year, zinc by 27% and gold by 10%. The price of Peruvian exports contracted by 15%, while imports shrank by 10%, causing terms of trade to fall by 5%.
This weaker performance was reflected in a current account deficit of nearly 4% of GDP which, together with greater risk aversion in financial markets and the Federal Reserve’s normalization, had a strong impact on the exchange rate, with depreciation of 13%, despite the central bank’s active intervention to prevent more corrections.
This situation caused tension on the money market because of the greater absorption of liquidity and the central bank having to adjust its intervention rate as a result of the greater pressure on inflation, which closed the year at 3.75%, 50 base points above its January level, when the aim was to stabilize it in real terms.
Peruvian inflation behaved similarly to other Pacific South American countries. Supply-side factors account for this variable’s inability to stay within the ranges established by the central bank. The hike in food prices can be put down to weather factors associated with the El Niño phenomenon and the impact of the exchange-rate adjustment on the prices of imported products and inputs, as well as services.
The fall in the volume and price of exports, as well as further softening in domestic demand, was reflected in an 8% fall in real terms, equivalent to 2.5 percentage points in current fiscal income, which explains the fiscal deficit in the Peruvian economy in 2015, given that expenditure remained stable in GDP terms, but with a change in the mix, with more current account spending, to the detriment of spending on investment.
In this environment, credit to the private sector grew at a rate of 11% over the year, but while credit in foreign currency plunged by 20%, exposing the central bank’s de-dollarization policy and expectations of devaluation, the component in the local currency, the sol (PEN), grew by 30%. The fastest-growing segments are consumer and large-corporation credits, whereas credit to small enterprises is virtually flat, because of the market’s perception of higher risk in this segment, as a result of the economy’s performance.
The Peruvian labor market is creating fewer jobs and there is a slight tendency for these to shift from small to large companies. The latter, by the country’s own definition, are those with more than 51 employees, and represent 30% of total employment. However, despite this trend, there is an increase in underemployed people and a slower rate of job creation in the metropolitan area of Lima, as well as a 2% fall in real labor incomes in this region.
Labor participation in Peru is 83%, one of the highest in Latin America, but the share of informal employment in the whole is over 60%, with self-employed workers and/or micro-entrepreneurs making up 40% of the labor force, revealing a labor market that is sharply divided between large companies and this latter group.
The financing needs of a large part of the Peruvian population who see private initiative as the way forward in the labor market make it vitally important to increase levels of financial inclusion which, according to official figures, has one of the lowest penetration rates in Latin America and below the level corresponding to its degree of development. In countries with labor market structures such as Peru, financial inclusion is a powerful tool in making progress and/or in consolidating the advances made to reduce poverty and in helping the 24% of the population who find themselves in this situation.