ION Financiera SAPI de CV SOFOM ER

Mortgages for self-employed Mexicans

Mexico

ION Financiera, SAPI de CV SOFOM ER (ION) is the first voluntarily regulated financial inclusion institution providing housing loans in Mexico. ION enables low-income Mexicans to obtain mortgages and increase their quality of living.

One of the basic rights included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is the right to adequate housing. In Mexico, however, almost 10 million households either don't have a home or live in overcrowded and inadequate homes.

A huge segment of Mexico’s society is self-employed. This means they don't have access to the public mortgage provider INFONAVIT or commercial providers, who prefer formal workers with regular incomes. ION was founded in 2011 to tackle this problem by offering mortgages to the ‘independent’ labour market.

ION has put in place clear lending policies, including credit bureau assessments, to prevent over-indebtedness among its clients. The company promotes environmentally-friendly building techniques by offering competitive interest rates to housing developers willing to use these techniques.

ION Financiera, SAPI de CV SOFOM ER has been an Oikocredit partner since 2016.