Hipotecaria Su Casita, S.A. de C.V. (HSC) and El Puerto de Liverpool, S.A.B. (EPL) (MXK: LIVEPOLC1) have signed a collaboration agreement under which they will provide loans to consumers to finance home furnishing or appliance purchases at Liverpool and Fabricas de Francia department stores, both of which are operated by EPL, according to a September 4, 2008 report in El Universal. 

The loans will available to consumers who obtain mortgage loans from HSC and do not borrow the maximum authorized amount, as determined by HSC based on consumer credit histories and income levels.  Such consumers will be offered a credit card, branded with both the HSC and EPL logos, that enables them to use the difference between the amount they actually borrow for their mortgage loans and the maximum authorized amount to make home furnishing and applicance purchases at Liverpool and Fabricas de Francia department stores.  Gonzalo Palfox, director of business development at HSC, said in the report that HSC has determined that 30% of Mexican mortgage loan borrowers do not use maximum authorized amount of mortgage financing.

The loans will bear interest at 35% per year, mature in five years, and be prepayable by consumers without penalty, according to a report in El Financiero.  The report also said that the collaboration agreement provides that EPL will place HSC kiosks in its Liverpool and Fabricas de Francia department stores, where consumers may request information about HSC mortgage loans.   

HSC was founded in 1994 as the first specialized mortgage lender in Mexico.  It is structured under Mexican law as a limited purpose finance company (sociedad financiera de objeto limitado - SOFOL), which means, very generally, that it is a specialized financial institution in terms of the types of loans it grants.  SOFOLs became particularly prominent in Mexico’s mortgage sector after December 1994, when the tequila crisis resulted in the collapse of the Mexican banking system and the banks ceased all mortgage lending operations.  SOFOLs, which now offer loans in various sectors of the Mexican finance market (e.g., agriculture, automotive, consumer goods, real estate, etc.), are not authorized to accept deposits.