Those with the best economic potentialities are also selected by the two
other criteria of reliability: personal resources and collateral. Personal resources to
the extent of 50% of the sum invested, as, for example, is demanded in Guatemala
by private mortgage banks as a pre-condition for financing the residual half by
credit, are pure illusion for low-income groups. Private credit corporations in most
countries behave in much the same prohibitive way. State establishments, on the
other hand, usually require, as proof of a certain capacity and willingness to save,
personal resources quite in proportion to the economic position of their customers.
There is a similar situation with regard to collateral, which is desired by
private banks when they grant credit and whose quality is subject to very specific
requirements: it must be valuable, of stable value and easy to liquidate at any
time. In some countries only plots of land are in practice regarded as adequate
security. It is obvious at a glance that people with low incomes are hardly in a
position to offer such securities. True, anyone who wants to purchase a plot of
land by means of a loan can offer this plot itself as collateral, but in this case the
credit company usually demands a considerable amount of personal resources in
addition, which the poor normally are not able to make available. But it becomes
much more of a problem when, for example, the purchase of building material
is to be financed, in particular when building is to take place on a plot of land
occupied illegally. No conventional credit company is prepared to accept, for
example, the building material itself even as partial collateral, since it involves
considerable expense for the creditor to market small quantities of used building
material at an acceptable price. Besides all this, there is also the risk of a total loss
due to the insecure land tenure or the mobility of the customer.