It is difficult to substantiate increased access to bank commercial credit in the last few years due to lack of reliable data. Available information (i.e. the R04C database of the CNBV) on the number of commercial borrowers is not necessarily related to increased accessibility<sup>39</sup> . On the other hand, a quarterly survey by BOM (“ _encuesta de evaluación coyuntural del mercado crediticio_ ”), which collects the views on access to credit of a static pool of at least 500 companies, shows that the proportion of all surveyed companies that considered domestic commercial banks as one of their main sources of credit declined from 24 to 17 percent since 2000, with the largest drop observed among large companies (see figures 28 and 29)<sup>40</sup> . A similar drop was observed in the proportion of firms that counted offshore (i.e. non-resident) banks as their main source of funding, which is consistent with the aforementioned decrease in foreign bank lending. By contrast, supplier credit has increasingly become the most important source of financing for Mexican companies of all sizes; in fact, 60 percent of all surveyed firms considered suppliers as one of their main source of credit, up from 48 percent in 2000<sup>41</sup> .

Figure 28: Main Provider of Financing by Company Size (December 2000) Figure 29: Main Provider of Financing by Company Size (December 2005) <!-- Start of picture text --> 100% 100%<br>90% 18 20 17 18 90% 14 20 23 17<br>80% 80%<br>70% 20 70%<br>60% 48 39 0 60% 44<br>50% 59 23 50% 69 58 53<br>1<br>40% 14 40% 3<br>30% 6 1 30% 2 8<br>20% 3 3 26 29 40 20% 1 1 23 3 28<br>10% 17 10% 15 17 19<br>0% 0%<br>Small Medium Large Corporates Small Medium Large Corporates<br>Com Banks Offshore banks Dev Banks Suppliers Other Com Banks Offshore banks Dev Banks Suppliers Other<br>Proportion of respondents (%)<br>Proportion of respondents (%)<br><!-- End of picture text -->

# Source: BOM.

Note: The size of companies is determined based on their annual sales in 1999 according to the following cut-off levels: Small (MXP 1-100 million), Medium (MXP 101-500 million), Large (MXP 501-5,000 million), AAA/Corporate (MXP 5,000+ million). Other financing consists of financing from other group companies, head office, non-banks, capital markets and other sources.

39 According the database, the number of commercial borrowers increases from 62 to 232 thousand between 2003 and 2005, but total commercial credit volume remains virtually unchanged. This can be attributed to the inclusion of guarantees by Nafin for SME loans and by the decline in credits to the government. The number of commercial credit accounts filed in the credit bureau, which increased from 1.8 million in 2000 to more than 4 million in 2005, can also be used as an indirect indicator of access. 40 However, the results of this survey need to be treated with caution. Firstly, the selected pool of 900 companies was drawn from a database of pre-existing bank borrowers as of 1999, implying that the sample is not representative of the corporate sector as a whole. Secondly, responses to the questionnaire are qualitative, meaning that the actual volume/proportion of funding by source is not captured. Finally, the sample has not been updated since 1999 to reflect the growth in sales turnover by some firms that might have moved them to larger-size categories; in addition, the definition of company size (based on annual turnover) differs to that used by the CNBV or the Ministry of Economy (see next paragraph). 41 According to the BOM, foreign supplier credit amounted to around 1 percent of GDP as of end-2005.

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