Cortesía Mi Pueblo

Atsumasa Tochisako, CEO of Microfinance International Corporation (MFIC)

A revolutionary model that has lowered the cost of remittances not only to Central America, but to other Third World countries, is in open expansion in the DC Metropolitan Area, where a micro-finance institution lead by Atsumasa Tochisako, CEO of Microfinance International Corporation (MFIC) is growing at a fast pace. The company, which currently has locations in Mount Pleasant Road, DC; Germantown, MD; Wheaton, also in MD; and Alexandria, VA; has started sending remittances to microfinance institutions in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Bolivia, and soon to Mexico.

“In the next 3 months, we will be opening 2 in VA (Seven Corners, Centreville), 2 in MD (Gaithersburg, Baltimore), and 2 in Delaware. And that is just the beginning, in the next 3 years, we will be opening about 50 branch offices in DC, North Carolina, Georgia, California, Texas and others. More than that, we will be forming alliance with existing banks that want to enter into the vast Hispanic market. The allied network would be around 200 locations (branch network) nationwide,” said Tochisako.

The company also offers a wide array of financial services to its clients in the US through Mi Pueblo, a chain of one-stop financial service centers, where consumers can cash their checks, apply for loans and credit lines.
“Soon, we’ll be in Ecuador, Mexico and Peru,” said the Spanish language versed Tochisako, who spent years working in countries like Panama and Ecuador as the General Representative for the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in Latin America.

Tochisako claims to know the struggles of immigrants in general: “we would prevail the appropriate financial services to Asian, African, and other communities, not only by offering services from U.S. to their countries of origin, but also by expanding our physical network to other continents other than the U.S.”

MFIC charges the sender a flat fee for remittances services. The fee for amounts under $150 is $6 and the fee for greater amounts is $9.
Within their plans to service the Hispanic community, MFIC plans to offer considerable financial services at affordable prices to those in need to obtain this kind of quality financial services, “ we will introduce life, medical insurance products, credit / debit card products, mortgage loans, auto loans, financial education class, and more, “ said Tochisako.

The company acknowledges that (Saving account service is the only matter they are not able to offer for the moment. We heartily care about the benefit of immigrants who come to U.S. to work hard, and therefore, we want to facilitate them the best financial services at reasonable rate. A study, commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank and Pew Hispanic Center, suggests that remittances from Mexicans working in the United States reach $20 billion every year. This sum is twice the value of Mexico’s agricultural exports, and over a third more than tourist revenue.