Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Mexico's Newest Bankers

Via Mexico Portal via Bloomberg via Ovaciones, this is a bit worrying:
Mexico’s La Familia drug gang, the dominant cartel in Michoacan state, is offering consumer loans, Ovaciones reported.

The criminal organization makes loans against the total value of any assets from the applicant, the Mexico City-based newspaper reported, citing pamphlets said to be from the cartel and interviews with unidentified people.

Loans from La Familia take less than 72 hours to be issued and the debt carries a lower interest rate than banks would give, Ovaciones reported.

Within a week of receiving a loan from La Familia, customers receive a message saying “Thank you for your trust, now you’re part of La Familia Michoacana,” the newspaper said.

3 comments:

Paul Roberts said...

Next they will be building schools, hospitals and offering universal education and healthcare

Mind you I would not like to default on a loan with La Familia

pc said...

Nor I. Richard pointed out (http://mexfiles.net/2009/09/15/your-friendly-family-bank/) that the website offering the report was a sports website, which struck me too, and that perhaps calls into question the validity of the article. I'm not saying it's untrue, but low interest loans seem an odd direction for a mafia to go.

Paul Roberts said...

Another step in this direction of providing financial services could be that la Familia starts to offer shares in its business