• Being the first gender bond issuance in the country, it is now increasingly popular among investors.

• The 3,000 million pesos issuance is part of a one hundred billion pesos government-authorized program that involve 3 stages.

• All proceeds from the issuances are intended to provide financing for women entrepreneurs exclusively, who are current affiliated or newcomers to FIRA in the food sector and rural areas.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico - Mexico celebrates its first social bond issuance with gender perspective from the national public bank sector, ‒the first of its kind carried out by a Federal Government financial entity in the Mexican national stock market. This issuance was placed by the Agricultural Trust Funds (FIRA, by its acronym in Spanish), a set of trusts funds from the Bank of Mexico where the Finance and Public Credit Secretariat serves as settlor, and the Bank of Mexico as trustee.

At the opening ceremony of “Grito BIVA”, as it is traditionally known to celebrate the placement of bonds made through the Institutional Stock Exchange (BIVA), BIVA General Director, María Araiza pointed out the importance of this first gender bond issued in Mexico by FIRA, which reached 3,000 million pesos and demanded four-times the amount offered with a TIIE rate +27 bp (a rate level similar to pre-COVID-19). Also, this issuance is part of a one hundred billion pesos government-authorized program that involve 3 stages; 1,400 million and 5,600 million pesos for the second and third stages, representing a watershed for the Mexican stock market in terms of ESG criteria, she added.

The event was attended by representatives of all the entities that had taken part in the issuance, including Irene Espinosa, Deputy Governor of Banxico; Belén Sanz, Representative of UN Women Mexico; Nadine Gasman, President of Inmujeres, Mexico; Verónica Zavala, Manager of the IDB’s Department for the countries of Central America, Haiti, Mexico, Panama, and the Dominican Republic; and Alan Elizondo Flowers, General Director of FIRA.

In this regard, Irene Espinosa, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Mexico highlighted the historical issuance, in the framework of the pandemic. “This issuance generates new paradigms to create greater inclusion models that consider social issues and the lives of women who contribute to Mexico's economic growth”. The Bank of Mexico strongly promotes the adoption of environmental, social and governance criteria as basic principles in the financial system operations, she said.

Likewise, Verónica Zavala, IDB Manager stated in a virtual message from Panama “At the IDB Group, we acknowledge that development banks should and must play an important role in closing gender equality gaps in the regional financial sector. For this reason, in addition to supporting FIRA in the issuance of this Bond, we have also supported the issuance of gender bonds by commercial banks in Panama and Colombia, with the same objective: catalyze resources to expand the financing frontier for women entrepreneurs and, at the same time, promote best practices to serve them and contribute to several of the Sustainable Development Goals ”. The country representative of the IDB in Mexico, Roberto Manrique, also attended as an honor witness to the launch.

In her speech, Belén Sanz, Representative of UN Women in Mexico, underlined the clear evidence of a new door that has been opened and leads the way for new empowerment opportunities of Mexican women. The innovation behind the issuance of Bonds with gender perspective helps to bridge the gaps for the implementation of the 2030 agenda, through the goal of reducing hunger. The United Nations has an enormous interest in support countries with initiatives like this one and urges other countries to replicate FIRA's work.

On behalf of the National Institute for Women, Nadine Gasman, President of the Institution, stressed that women's access to financial resources is currently an important unresolved global issue, especially in rural and indigenous areas where access to credit is extremely limited. In this sense, she congratulated the great contribution of FIRA's Social Gender Bond, as a matter of social justice, gender equality, and economic efficiency.

On his closing remarks, the General Director of FIRA, Alan Elizondo Flores, highlighted FIRA’ solid grounds and balanced women portfolio. This new bond issuance will distinguish even more the loans offered by FIRA, now financing women individually or in groups. “For FIRA, it is an obligation to break down gender inequality barriers and create new financing opportunities. It is a historic day and a grand gala; we achieved our objective of both society and investors investing together on women development."

Today, 6 out of 10 people who produce food goods in developing countries are women. Women also  generate 33 to 66 percent less income than men and have very limited access to credit. Only 20% of the women in Mexico are property owners, which implies significant challenges to create new commercial chains, develop infrastructure, and create new jobs. FIRA's bonds provide a new way to create commercial chains that bring basic and essential supplies, improve digital access, and bring financing through FIRA’s network of +80 financial intermediaries institutions with vast experience on agricultural models.

Finally, General Director of FIRA acknowledge and thanks the joint work carried out among the trust investors, the Bank of Mexico, the Ministry of Finance of Mexico, and the participation of the IDB in the development of this framework to strengthen women access to credit and financial support in Mexico.