It is easy to assess the performance of governments, institutions, and social programs from the perspective of the value and impact that social programs have on the population, and the way in which their needs are mitigated over time.
With this same vision, FIMPE, together with organizations such as Bansefi and various government and state agencies, undertook the task of streamlining the delivery of social support in Mexico. For years, this model proved difficult to operate and administer, with internal control deficiencies that could lead to misuse of resources or administrative deficiencies prone to corruption, restrictions on the delivery of resources, and, of course, misappropriation of resources.
For this reason, in 2009, FIMPE developed the first fingerprint biometric technology platform for the identification of beneficiaries of the then-called OPORTUNIDADES food support program for low-income families.
Later, this program was further developed and renamed, eventually becoming the current program known as PROSPERA. Which to date is one of the most successful, with unique characteristics among the more than 6,489 existing social programs, according to CONEVAL’s national inventory of social development programs and actions.
By 2012, there was a registry of 7 million beneficiaries who used a card with biometric fingerprint registration, and more than 20,000 point-of-sale (POS) terminals were operating at the federal, state, and municipal levels to distribute program resources.
WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED?
Social programs at the federal, state, and municipal levels have lacked adequate controls and technology for their proper development and user identification. To this day, there is no single beneficiary registry that would allow transparency in how resources are used and how they are distributed among the population.
This brings with it the challenge of modernizing and standardizing existing and newly created social support programs to avoid: duplication of users, support conditioned on the population, clear and transparent controls over resources received and granted, as well as controls to reconcile and maintain an updated registry of beneficiaries.
In some cases, programs continue to use cardboard cards and manual processes such as registration in booklets or stubs to identify beneficiaries and grant them program benefits.
ACTIONS AND BENEFITS
FIMPE currently processes more than 15 million biometric transactions every two months, with more than 8 million cards issued, of which 7,000 have four fingerprints recorded: two for the cardholder and two for the alternate. If the cardholder cannot receive support due to illness, absence from the community, or any other circumstance, the previously accredited alternate can use the card and validate their identity as a substitute to receive support on behalf of the cardholder.
Previously, beneficiary accreditation was done manually, using paper receipts or cardboard cards. The accreditation process could take up to 15 minutes per beneficiary before receiving the benefits; currently, with biometric identification, the process only takes a minute or less.
CLEAR OBJECTIVES
The support delivery platform aims to provide an efficient solution for the enrollment and identity verification of any applicant for social support from the various programs available in the country.
HOW WE DO IT
The implementation of the platform encompasses three main processes:
Card issuance. This consists of issuing a personalized card where all the social program information is electronically stored. If the program handles cash, the card can be enabled as a debit card to deposit funds and then withdraw them at any ATM.
The cards are then taken to the field and beneficiary enrollment begins with the capture of the user’s identity accreditation information, from their basic data such as name and address, to the capture of the fingerprint biometric record that is validated on the readers that are already in the same terminal that reads the card’s chip, so no additional hardware is required.
The third phase consists of the delivery of support. In the case of the PROSPERA program, the dispersion of resources is done bimonthly through the receiving bank BANSEFI, which in turn generates the information of beneficiaries entitled to the program’s resources. Through the FIMPE social support delivery platform, specific information is processed.
So that each terminal receives updated information on the support that each beneficiary is entitled to.
BENEFITS
The benefits of the social support delivery platform are many. Among the main ones are operational transparency and the prevention of manipulation, conditioning, or misappropriation of resources; avoiding duplication or identity theft of beneficiaries; reducing operational problems and reconciliation times; being a user-friendly platform that is easily customizable to each social program and its operating characteristics; and the cards can also be configured to serve as bank cards and contribute to banking access.
WHY FIMPE?
At FIMPE, we have experience implementing a program that, over almost ten years in operation, has yielded great results and operated efficiently. The question is, why does only one program out of hundreds operate with biometrics? Nine years of history speak for themselves. The experience and user-friendly use of technology make it easier every day to use biometrics in its various technological developments, such as facial and fingerprint, the latter being the only one that meets international operating standards and is one of the simplest and safest to use.
