Report on the Clip-Belvo Partnership: Advancing Financial Inclusion and Sustainable Development in Mexico

Executive Summary

This report analyzes the strategic partnership between Clip, Mexico’s leading digital commerce platform, and Belvo, an Open Finance technology provider. The collaboration directly addresses significant financial inclusion gaps in Mexico, where a substantial portion of the population lacks the formal credit history required by traditional financial institutions. By leveraging alternative data sources, the initiative provides essential financial services to underserved individuals and businesses, making a direct and measurable contribution to several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities).

Technological Framework for Inclusive Finance

The partnership utilizes Belvo’s comprehensive Open Finance technology suite to power Clip’s credit and automated payment product, PrestaClip. This creates a robust financial infrastructure designed to serve a diverse client base, from micro-merchants to large corporations, thereby fostering a more equitable economic landscape.

End-to-End Credit Assessment and Management

The core of the solution tackles a structural barrier to financial inclusion by creating new pathways to credit. This is achieved through several key technological components:

• Alternative Data for Credit Scoring: Belvo’s employment-data product enables Clip to assess an applicant’s financial stability using metrics such as length of employment, formal income, and job change frequency. This model bypasses the need for traditional credit bureau history, a critical step toward achieving SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities).
• Dynamic Risk Monitoring: Automated updates on users’ employment status allow for continuous risk assessment. This capability enables Clip to dynamically adjust credit limits, minimize fraud, and offer more personalized and fair loan terms, aligning with the principles of sustainable economic growth under SDG 8.

Payment Automation and Operational Efficiency

Belvo’s account-to-account debit payment product is another cornerstone of the partnership, enhancing operational stability for businesses and contributing to sustainable economic activity.

1. Automated Collections: The system automates recurring payment collections, which is vital for businesses with subscription models (e.g., gyms, insurance, education). This improves cash flow predictability and reduces reliance on inefficient manual or cash-based systems.
2. Enhanced Business Efficiency: By automating payments, client companies reduce collection costs, increase payment success rates, and lower customer churn. This operational strengthening supports the viability and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a key driver for SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth).

Contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The Clip-Belvo initiative serves as a powerful case study in how financial technology can be deployed to achieve global development targets. The impact is evident across multiple SDGs.

SDG 1: No Poverty & SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

By providing access to credit for individuals and small businesses previously excluded from the formal financial system, the partnership directly addresses poverty and inequality. Access to capital allows entrepreneurs to invest in their businesses, generate income, and build assets, breaking cycles of poverty and reducing the economic disparity between the banked and unbanked.

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

The initiative fosters sustainable economic growth by empowering SMEs, which are the backbone of the Mexican economy. Providing them with credit (PrestaClip) and efficient payment tools strengthens their financial health, enabling them to grow, operate more efficiently, and create stable employment opportunities.

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

This collaboration exemplifies innovation in financial infrastructure. It builds a more inclusive, resilient, and technologically advanced financial system in Mexico. By proving the viability of alternative data models, it encourages the broader financial industry to adopt more inclusive practices, thus upgrading the entire sector’s infrastructure.

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

The alliance between Clip and Belvo is a model for SDG 17, demonstrating how collaboration between private sector entities can effectively address complex development challenges. Their combined expertise—Clip’s market reach and Belvo’s technological infrastructure—creates a scalable solution with a tangible impact on financial inclusion.

Scalability and Market Impact

The integrated technology stack is designed for scalability, serving businesses from micro-merchants to multi-branch enterprises. This centralization of financial operations reduces friction and accelerates digitalization. The success of this model is demonstrated by key performance indicators:

• Over 30 million CURPs processed via Belvo in 2025.
• A connection success rate exceeding 98%.
• An annualized total payment volume (TPV) of over $500 million from account-to-account transactions.

These figures confirm that secure and reliable mechanisms now exist to assess repayment capacity without relying on traditional data, setting a new standard for inclusive financial product design in Mexico and beyond.

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

SDG 1: No Poverty

• The article discusses providing financial services to individuals who have been historically excluded. Access to credit can be a pathway out of poverty by enabling entrepreneurship and financial stability.

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

• The partnership between Clip and Belvo directly supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by providing them with access to credit and tools for automating payments. This fosters entrepreneurship, helps businesses grow, and improves their operational efficiency, contributing to economic growth.

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

• The core of the article is about technological innovation (Open Finance, Belvo’s data platform) being used to build a more inclusive financial infrastructure. It highlights how this technology provides small-scale enterprises with access to financial services like credit.

SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

• The initiative explicitly targets a major source of inequality in the financial system. By creating a method to assess creditworthiness for people “who have never had formal access to credit” and are often rejected due to a “lack of bureau history,” the solution directly aims to reduce the financial exclusion of marginalized populations.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

Under SDG 1: No Poverty

• Target 1.4: “By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance.” The article’s focus on providing credit to those without a formal financial history directly aligns with increasing access to financial services.

Under SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

• Target 8.3: “Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services.” The article details how Clip’s service, powered by Belvo, provides credit and payment solutions to “everything from small businesses to nationwide corporates,” including “micro-merchants,” thereby supporting their growth and operational management.
• Target 8.10: “Strengthen the capacity of domestic financial institutions to encourage and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all.” The collaboration between Clip and Belvo represents an innovative strengthening of financial infrastructure to expand credit access to previously unbanked or underbanked segments of the population.

Under SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

• Target 9.3: “Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets.” The article is a case study of this target in action, showing how a tech platform (Belvo) enables a digital commerce platform (Clip) to offer credit (PrestaClip) to small businesses.

Under SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

• Target 10.2: “By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.” The article’s central theme is using alternative data to “solve real financial inclusion challenges” and serve those “historically left out of the system,” directly addressing economic inclusion.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

Indicators for Financial Access and Inclusion (Targets 1.4, 8.10, 10.2)

• Baseline problem indicator: “30% of credit applications in Mexico are rejected for lack of bureau history.” Progress can be measured by a reduction in this rejection rate for this specific reason.
• Alternative data usage: The use of variables like “length of employment, formal income, and frequency of job changes” to assess creditworthiness for those without traditional banking history.
• Volume of identity verifications: “more than 30 million CURPs processed via Belvo so far in 2025.” This indicates the scale of the system being used to assess individuals, many of whom may lack traditional credit histories.

Indicators for SME Growth and Efficiency (Targets 8.3, 9.3)

• Payment automation volume: “Belvo processes roughly two million account-to-account payment transactions every month.”
• Total Payment Volume (TPV): An “annualized total payment volume (TPV) of more than $500 million” shows the economic scale of the automated transactions benefiting businesses.
• Business operational improvements: The article implies that progress can be measured by tracking metrics such as reduced “collection costs,” increased “payment-success rates,” and lower “customer churn” for client companies.

Indicators for Technology and Infrastructure (General)

• System reliability: A “connection-success rate above 98%” indicates the robustness and effectiveness of the technological infrastructure being used to provide these financial services.

4. Table of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: openbankingexpo.com