Mexico’s SMEs play a significant role in the country’s economy and employment market. Yet – access to appropriate financing remains a challenge, particularly for businesses that lack traditional collateral or need funding on shorter timeframes. Trafalgar is positioning its SOFIPO model as an alternative to the conventional banking approach, combining digital processes and faster credit decisions with regulated operations and human oversight.
The firm received SOFIPO authorisation from Mexico’s Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV) in 2023 and began operations in 2025. With its longer-term strategy extending beyond SME banking into securities and wealth management, Trafalgar is now looking to build an integrated financial services platform.
We speak to Porfirio Sanchez–Talavera, Trafalgar’s General Director & CEO, about the company’s approach to SME credit, balancing innovation with risk and compliance, the role of AI in its model and what comes next for the group.
What are the biggest barriers preventing Mexican SMEs from accessing credit today, and how is Trafalgar addressing them differently from traditional banks?
SMEs in Mexico are stuck in a paradox: they generate over 70% of employment, yet traditional banks treat them as marginal risk.
The barriers are well known real estate collateral requirements that most businesses simply don’t have, credit committees that take quarters to decide, and a branch-based model that doesn’t understand the real cycle of a business that needs liquidity next week, not next quarter.
At Trafalgar, we solve this structurally, not with a tech patch. We’re a SOFIPO with our own capital and independent decision-making, no foreign parent, no global committee approving from New York. That means a credit line of up to 3.5 million pesos gets decided in hours, with no real estate collateral, at a fixed rate, and no prepayment penalty. The platform is 100% digital, but behind it there’s a banker who knows your business and your position, not an anonymous algorithm, and not an account manager who rotates every six months.
Trafalgar operates with the agility of a fintech, coupled with the reach and regulatory discipline of a licensed financial institution. How do you balance innovation with the compliance, governance and risk-management requirements that come with operating under a SOFIPO license?
We don’t see those as opposing forces – they’re the same advantage viewed from two angles. The Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV) authorised us as a SOFIPO in 2023 – the first new one in over a decade – precisely because we meet the same capitalisation, external audit and corporate governance standards demanded of international banking. That’s not optional and it’s not negotiable.
What we do choose is where to put friction and where to remove it. Regulatory oversight, selective client admission and external audits are non-negotiable, that’s where the security of the Savings Protection Fund and the trust of every depositor lives. But in-person paperwork, branch visits, weeks of waiting for a credit decision, that’s friction that adds cost without adding safety. The digital platform lets us move with fintech speed because we automate the operational layer, while risk judgment and final decisions remain human, informed and governed by the same standards as any regulated institution.
How is Trafalgar using AI across the product suite? Where do you see the greatest advantages and risks of deploying AI in financial services?
I’ll be honest, at this stage our priority has been building the foundation, the digital platform, regulatory compliance and the core product suite (checking accounts, term deposits, business credit) to the standard our regulator and our clients expect. We see AI as a tool to deepen that foundation, not to replace it.
The biggest advantage I see is in credit risk analysis and customer experience – being able to evaluate an SME faster and with better judgment than a manual process and anticipating a client’s liquidity needs before they have to ask. The real risk in financial services isn’t the technology itself, it’s the temptation to hand off decisions that carry regulatory and financial consequences for other people. So, our philosophy is that AI supports the banker’s judgment and doesn’t replace it, especially in a business where “your banker stays with you” is part of the value proposition.
How has Trafalgar’s journey so far shaped the company’s long-term vision? What lessons have been most valuable in building the next phase of the business?
Trafalgar Asset Management has been around since 1996, 30 years operating in regulated financial sectors. That track record taught us something simple that few respect – institutional trust is built slowly and lost quickly. So when we received SOFIPO authorisation in 2023 and began operations in 2025, we didn’t come in to “disrupt”, we came in to operate with the same discipline as any established institution, just without the weight of branches and bureaucracy.
The most valuable lesson has been that integration matters more than speed. In 2026, we secured authorisation for the Casa de Bolsa, forming Grupo Empresarial Trafalgar under Ley para Regular las Agrupaciones Financieras (LRAF). It completed a vision where the SOFIPO handles day-to-day liquidity and the Casa de Bolsa manages long-term wealth, one relationship, one platform, with no need for the client to leave the group as they grow.
What lies next for Trafalgar? Where do you see the business in the next five years?
We see 2027 as our consolidation year, not a distant goal, but the stage where the experience we’ve built and our growth position us as a reference player in the Mexican financial market, not just among SMEs but in institutional wealth management too.
Five years out, the group operates as a fully integrated platform, with the SOFIPO as the engine for deposits and SME credit, and the Casa de Bolsa handling market intermediation, investment banking, fiduciary services and wealth management. The goal is that any Mexican business owner from someone opening their first business account to someone who already needs a discretionary mandate or corporate financing finds everything under one roof, with the same independent judgment and personalized attention that’s set us apart from day one. Growing without losing what makes us different – that the capital decisions happen here and that the banker knows your name.
