Ricardo Salinas, Mexican billionaire and owner of Banco Azteca, looks to expand microlending services to ‘the bottom of the pyramid’ in the U.S.

Ricardo Salinas, the Mexican billionaire whose banking and retail empire spans eight countries, is looking to expand his microlending business by offering the loans to lower income populations in the U.S. Ricardo Salinas said in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York, that Grupo Elektra SA seeks clients at the “bottom of the pyramid” in terms of income and assets; U.S. households with less than $25,000 in annual income fit that profile. “[It] would be my dream to set up a series of 10,000 branches over the U.S. that addressed the bottom of the pyramid,” he said, adding, “It’s complicated because of the environment, but we’re looking at it.”