During the Forbes Economy and Business Forum 2025, Nicolás Schiaffino, vice president and country manager of PayJoy Mexico, pointed out that, despite the advance of digitalization in recent years, the country still faces a pending task: bringing formal credit to more people.
“The pandemic accelerated digitalization and improved financial penetration, but the structural challenge has not changed: only one in three adults in Mexico has access to formal credit,” the manager warned.
The data confirms the gap. Although active debit accounts grew 30% and mobile banking users doubled, only 42% of adults manage to cover their monthly expenses with their income, and a third have no savings capacity nor can they face financial unforeseen events. In this context, Schiaffino stressed that access to credit “is the most effective tool to generate social mobility, because each peso lent to SMEs produces 1.7 additional pesos in the economy.”
With a presence in more than 7 thousand points of sale and alliances with hundreds of business partners, PayJoy has developed its own risk assessment model based on data microsegmentation and smartphone technology, which allows credit approval in less than two minutes. Its system uses the cell phone as an intelligent guarantee, reducing delinquencies by more than 35% compared to loans without collateral and increasing the financial depth of its clients by 67%.
The model demonstrates that responsible credit can be inclusive and scalable. According to the company, 92% of users make their first payment on time, 40% obtain a second line of credit and three out of four report high satisfaction with the experience.
“I can’t imagine an economic agenda that doesn’t talk about how to bring credit closer to people, because the impact is undeniable,” said Schiaffino. “Mexico is the most important market for PayJoy, and our goal is to become the most relevant credit institution for those who have historically been outside the financial system.”
Founded in Silicon Valley, PayJoy has established itself as a global leader in financial inclusion thanks to its patented smartphone management technology and its focus on underserved populations. More than 50% of its users access their first formal credit through the platform. The company seeks to continue accompanying Mexicans at every stage of their financial development and achieve greater inclusion.
