Mexico City has 10,000 bank branches for its population of 20 million people most of whom have found alternative and cheaper means of obtaining a loan. One way is via the Monte de Piedad, a pawn shop with a difference. It once claimed to save lives!

It is a highly respected government institution and is much more than a lender of last resort, in reality it's a National Pawnshop, barometer of the local economy a mother lode of treasure as well as a charity. This is not the little pokey pawn shop personified in Sydney Lumet's film, The Pawnbroker with Rod Steiger, but a palatial marble building that could well be the headquarters of a large bank. It was in fact the residence of Cortés after he conquered the city in 1519. 

Monte de Piedad translates variously as the "Bank of Pity" or "Mountain of Mercy". The institution dates back to 1775 after Charles III of Spain authorised the owner of one of Mexico's richest silver mines, Pedro Romero de Terreros, Count of Regla, to find a solution to the locals' economic woes. Christened the "Sacred and Royal Mountain of Pity of Souls" one of its early objectives was the saving of souls. In effect Monte de Piedad became Mexico's first credit institution and today is as strong and vital to its culture and economy as it was two centuries ago.

Its objectives were three-fold:
1) to provide personal credit to the poor through the public sector,
2) to apply the profits to charitable works such as the poor, orphanages and other needs,
and
3) to help small artisans and businessmen sell their wares at modest prices.

Unlike banks, Monte de Piedad had a human face. There's the story of a man who had no money to bury his farther so he took an urn with his uncle's ashes to the counter where it was accepted as collateral. With the money loaned to him he could afford a decent funeral for this father.  Imagine walking into one of our banks with such a request.

The Monte de Piedad doesn't discriminate among its borrowers, it lends to everyone who has some collateral whether it be an electric ham-slicer, pair of earrings or an urn with a deceased person's ashes. The wealthy and privileged class often needs emergency cash as does the poor and underprivileged class. All are welcome at the Monte de Piedad. And with a monthly interest rate of around 2%, the lowest rate in Mexico, quick processing and less paperwork involved, why would you want to go to a bank anyway?

Things of course have changed since those early days since its inception. While the Monte d Piedad no longer claims to save souls, you could say that it has preserved its own.

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