ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates some of the key players in Mexico's profit microfinance industry, which include retail-based banks such as Banco Walmart and Multiple Purpose Financial Companies - or, Sociedad Financiem de Objeto Mutiple (SOFOMES). The first objective of this chapter is to draw connections between the global debtfarism pursued by international development institutions such as the World Bank and G20 in the name of financial inclusion and the historical specifics of debtfarism in Mexico. The second objective of this chapter is to deconstruct key features of the Mexican microfinance industry and reveal its inherent relations of power and paradoxes. It analyses the regulative and rhetorical roles played by the Mexican debtfare state, as well as global debtfarism, in facilitating the expansion of formalised microfinance institutions (MFIs) to support capitalist interests while providing a market-led solution to the social reproduction of the surplus population.
