In 2020, the largest banks in the country had to face the credit contraction due to the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, one of the credits that showed resilience was the mortgage, while credit cards were the ones that suffered the most from the crisis. An example of the above is Santander México, which at the end of 2020 achieved a 14% growth in mortgage credit while cards fell 9.5%.
Héctor Grisi, general director of the bank, said in an interview that given customer demand and interest rates at historically low levels (around 7%), they hope to maintain the growth rate.
“The dynamics of mortgage credit is still strong, above all I am talking about the levels of housing of 1 to 4 million pesos, which are where there is more demand and where customers feel comfortable. We see calm people, they are buying and a dynamics that has been rising, “said the banker.
Grisi estimates that it will be towards the end of 2021 when the dynamism of credit begins the upward trend and recover transaction levels in credit cards.
However, to reach the levels that were had prior to the pandemic, it will take up to a couple of years more, when people start to regain confidence and their activities. The same will happen in loans to micro, small and medium-sized companies.
The manager estimates that the Mexican economy will recover pre-crisis growth levels until 2022, I feel “cautiously optimistic.”
The bank estimates that it will be in June 2021, and once the support programs have passed, when it will be possible to know which SMEs managed to survive and which ones will have finally lowered the curtain.
“In SMEs we have already experienced the worst and we have already seen those that really could not hold out in the second closing of December. Those that are are those that are going to survive, I do not expect the portfolio to complicate and we will already be able to see growth towards the end of the year “, highlighted Grisi.
