Honduras—Banco Ficohsa Phase I

Building on its recent entry and growth in mortgage and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) lending, Banco Ficohsa—Honduras’ largest locally owned commercial bank—assessed its experience and the Honduran market to identify opportunities for profitable growth. Working with the bank, DAI studied the segmentation of the enterprise and residential mortgage markets, and assessed Banco Ficohsa’s capacity to better serve these segments. Our advisers designed a plan to improve Banco Ficohsa’s strategic focus; product offerings; marketing and sales strategies; policy guides, manuals, and procedures; staffing, organizational structure, and skills; cost management; and support systems. This project is part of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Latin America and Caribbean MSME Finance Technical Assistance Facility. The IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, promotes sustainable economic growth in developing countries by financing private sector investment, mobilizing private capital in local and international financial markets, and providing advisory and risk mitigation services to businesses and governments.

Sample Activities

• Educate the organization on upcoming improvements to policies, plans, and procedures.
• Develop more responsive yet standardized products, with training for staff and marketing strategies to reach out to key audiences.
• Prepare manuals and processes that incorporate the improved policies and product lines.
• Train credit officers, risk analysts, and supervisors in sound MSME and home financing practices.
• Provide human resources support to recruit staff who specialize in MSME and home financing.
• Create new lending products for home financing that cover construction, mortgage, and home improvement loans, as well as developing further strategies for penetrating the housing market.
• Implement best practices in mortgage and home improvement loan origination and administration, supported by IFC’s mortgage tool kit.