Casa Mujer

According to the World Bank, women represent half of the world's population and half of its economic potential. But they are far less likely than men to own a home because too often work in informal jobs and are unfamiliar with loan application procedures. Casa Mujer will use technology to provide housing finance services for women at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) that can´t have access to traditional financial services, along with a Online Continuing Education Program that begins by building strong socioemotional skills, enhances its financial literacy, and finally contributes to its vocational training in order to strengthen responsible financial behavior throughout each stage of the life of each women´s loan. As a result, these women can pull themselves out of poverty, enjoy  greater financial stability and independence, while contributing more to their community's economy, and ultimately improve their lives and their families’.

Mexicans with the lowest income spend up to 61% of what they earn to pay the place where they live and services, while those, with more income, spend 34% and 30%, which also reflects inequality in access to housing in this country. Although there are financial programs for historically discriminated people, they do not necessarily reach all the people who should have access to them. 

According to a 2015 analysis of affordable housing prices in 45 OECD countries, Mexico ranks 13th among countries with the lowest housing affordability. Addressing the problem of affordability requires facing the challenge of cost and access to financing. 

On the other hand, low and fluctuating incomes, lack of collateral combined with a lack of financial literacy, often make it difficult for women in the Base of the Pyramid to engage directly with traditional financial institutions. 

Casa Mujer will focus on guaranteeing the right to adequate housing for women who are not subject to credit from governmental institutions or private banking, while enrolling themselves in a Online Continuing Education Program to assure that they are at their best to assume a long-term commitment that will eventually improve their life.

Women from the BOP with no access to financial services will use Casa Mujer to enrol into an Education Program that enhances their socioemotional skills and uses technology to evaluate their profile and guarantees that are capable of assuming a long term financial commitment.

Characteristics of Casa Mujer web: user-friendly features, seamless performance, robust security, works well in all cell phones. 

The Casa Mujer web will allow women to: 

1. Provide future-centri financial advice according to the user´s spending habits and income in a personalized way. 

2. Receive a house loan, after completing education modules and the initial screening to determine payment capacity. 

3. Access loan history, send reminders to pay their credit on time. 

4. Make weekly payments 

5. Continue their education program for the credit’s life. 

6. Access to life and health insurance. 

How does Casa Mujer Web allow us to provide financial services? 

1. Uses data analysis technology to understand a customer's profile.

2. Gather information about financial habits to reduce risk. 

3. Understand the financial ecosystem to advise further services.

Casa Mujuer Web will provide an e-mentor to support all women from the beginning of their learning journey and throughout the credit’s life to ensure that women are buying houses in safe quality living environments.

Women in Mexico do engage in paid work but many of them work in the informal sector. Moreover, financial exclusion rates in Mexico remain the highest amongst OECD countries, affecting women in particular. More than half of Mexico's population is engaged in the informal economy, with women (58.8%) more likely than men (50.1%) to hold informal jobs. 

Women remain concentrated in “invisible” areas of informal work, which offer precarious employment status, low and irregular remuneration, little or no access to social security or protection, and limited access to financial services.

There has been progress in various financial access points like banking branches, POS terminals, banking agents, ATMs and microfinance banks however there is still a long way to go in order to offer a set of quality financial services to women that will allow them to break the cycle of poverty and accumulate wealth.

In Casa Mujer, we believe that the best way for women to protect their financial future is by having access to a home loan, life insurance, health insurance, and a continued education support, using technology and innovative data collection and analysis to better understand our customers and offer the best service. 

We are currently working in vulnerable communities in Mexico and we have engaged into authentic conversations with different members to understand the vision and aspirations for their financial future. 

Casa Mujer aims to contribute in building an inclusive digital economy by providing access to financial services for women from low income to obtain a house credit through the use of a webpage that is user friendly and adaptable to the majority of cell phones. 

The female population in the country is made up of 65.4 million people approximately 14.1 million work in informality. 

The usage of informal financial services like credit and savings represents a high share in Mexico. 46% of the adult population reports not having a credit, 25% use informal credit systems, 16% use formal credit.

We are currently talking to women that work in the informal economy and live in vulnerable areas in Nuevo Leon to understand their needs in order to create a financial service that fits them well. Casa Mujer is a prototype because our organization is building and testing its product, service and business model. Our  approach is to use data analysis technology to find the right profile of customer that reduces the risk of indebtedness. 

Casa Mujer is also incubating inside Radix Education to build the education online curriculum that will be in place to support women for the next 10 to 25 years. 

A design team is working on the construction of the webpage that will allow women to obtain their loan. We had also tested this technology with some women in Nuevo León to see how they react to it and if the service seems beneficial and attractive for them.

Casa Mujer uses an innovative way to gather information from the women that are subject to credit in order to assure that they are trustworthy. We are relying on information that traditional financial institutions do not gather. For example, recommendations from teachers and school directors of their children's school, former lenders, former landlords, etc. This information is entered into our web page for us to review it and validated it without women coming into a bank to fill in tedious applications. 

We haven't provide one single loan yet but our goal is to place 270 loans in the first year and reach to 2500 customers in the first five years.