Mexican Mortgage Lender Brushes Off Big Banks

MEXICO CITY – Fast growth at No. 3 Mexican mortgage lender Credito y Casa means it needs fresh capital, but its owners are uninterested in selling out to a big bank, a company director said on Thursday.

Credito y Casa’s owners have faith in Mexico’s booming housing industry and are willing to sink more of their own money into the company, investor relations director Bernardo Vera Toledo told Reuters in an interview.

Financial group BBVA’s $375 million acquisition of leading Mexican mortgage lender Hipotecaria Nacional last month has sparked speculation that the country’s small but bustling mortgage companies could get snapped up by the country’s large, foreign-owned banks.

New loan reserve rules and mortgage growth as high as 30 percent this year mean Credito y Casa will have to increase its capital, but the Sinaloa-based company does not plan to do a deal with a big bank, Vera said.

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