Mexican bankers show muscle in the most important financial appointment of the year in Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit. With the shadow of the Donald Trump’s tariff wall, the captains of the country’s main banks have held their 88 bank convention in the Pacific coasts and have had as a guest of honor the president, Claudia Sheinbaum. As one more morning, the president presented before the thousand bankers the social programs of her government, the rise in employment and the increase in the minimum wage. With slide in hand and without fuss, Sheinbaum made a single call for attention to the guild: the lack of access to credit in the country. The president contrasted that despite the profitability of banking in Mexico – with record profits for more than 288,000 million pesos annually – access to financing is barely 33%, below countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Peru.
With this background warning, the bankers and the Executive signed an agreement during the Convention to raise 3.5% per year the financing to small and medium enterprises to reach, at the end of the six -year term, that 30% of the so -called MSMEs have access to a bank loan. Development bank will support deprived with guarantees schemes that mitigate the cost of loans. In a country where more than 50% of the economically active population works in informality, the challenge to raise the penetration of financial services has been one of the country’s large slopes for decades.
The Banking Convention in Nayarit was also the scene of the change of Estafeta in the presidency of the Association of Banks of Mexico. Julio Carranza delivered the so -called “Command Mazo” to Emilio Romano, president of the Bank of Bank of America Mexico. Romano already had its first test of fire when gathered behind closed doors with Scott Rembrandt, deputy secretary of strategic policy of the Treasury Department, to address money laundering controls in the financial system. “It was a very good meeting where it was clear that the future of the financial system is in seeking how both the authorities and the banks have timely information to be able to act efficiently in protecting banking systems in the face of the possible arrival of resources that come from illegal activities. The objective is common, we totally agree with the US authorities to work together,” said Roman.
In this same line of regional integration between Mexico, the USA and Canada, Romano has already proposed the creation of a working group with the United States to strengthen regional integration and the homologation of financial operations between the two countries. “We have to be more agile in the exchange of information, create proactive detection mechanisms. We will seek to continue closing spaces to illegal activities to protect the integrity of the system and give more confidence to our users,” he said.
Unlike the previous six -year term of López Obrador, the bankers now agree that there is a greater opening to the dialogue with the National Palace tenant and more technical profiles in the cabinet. The turn of the interlocution, they point out, will serve to build bridges in an uncertainty environment, caution in the demand for credit, economic slowdown and fear of the possible changes in international trade and, specifically, by the imposition of more US tariffs on Mexican imports. Despite this, banking in Mexico rules out a scenario of economic recession in 2025. Its estimation of GDP rise is 0.2% in 2025 and 1.4% next year.
Jorge Arce, general director of HSBC in Mexico, acknowledged that the country faces winds against. “This uncertainty has removed the possibility that we grow faster. We see a solid, stable country, but that its investment decisions is greatly delaying because there is uncertainty with our main commercial partner,” he said. However, the banker trusts the country’s ability to adapt to overcome the US protectionist policy. “Mexico is going to be one of the best -free countries that there is because nobody sells more to the United States than Mexico, that relationship will not change, we will continue very integrated,” he settled.
The general director of Grupo Financiero Base, Julio Escandón, added that Trump’s issue and tariffs are external situations against which they have to raise solid internal solutions to promote projects that demand, in turn, credits. For the banker, the priority is that Mexico has infrastructure, energy and services that attract investors, thus the financing would increase. “The mistake we are making now is to go with Trump’s feint, he will continue like this. In general, the bank is very put to support the Mexico Plan, to give credit,” he said. Escandón said that the best thing that can happen to Mexico is that the renegotiation of the TMEC be ahead to end uncertainty, one of the most harmful effects for economic growth.
On the recent request of President Sheinbaum that banks must lower credits to boost the economy, bankers agree that it is not an issue that is resolved by decree. Financials trust that financing rates will fall to the same extent that the Bank of Mexico will continue with the bearish cycle in the reference types of recent months. In its last monetary policy decision, the Central Bank reduced the interest rate to locate in 9%. “What we are asking for the government to lower rates is that the development bank focuses on its role, which is not to lend, that it does not compete to us, that supports us with guarantees, if we give us guarantees the development bank we can lower the rates,” Escandón settled.
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