Early Internationalization of the Mexican Financial System, 1960–90

The ownership of the Mexican banking system is today concentrated within large global financial conglomerates. A few decades ago this would have been unthinkable, as Mexico’s banking sector was highly protected, mainly from foreign competition. However, despite the platitudes that are common in the literature on the Mexican economy, the financial system in the country began a process of internationalization in the early 1960s. This internationalization was far from an opening to foreign investment, but it was a way to participate in global financial markets.

This paper argues that such early internationalization played a role in the future process of financial opening in the 1990s, an argument is based on the business histories of the two largest banks in Mexico, Banamex and Bancomer. This article examines how they developed an incipient strategy of internationalization, related to the financial needs of export companies and international groups working in Mexico. The article also examines the cases of one of the main brokerages, Accival, to explain the drivers behind the insertion of the securities market into global markets, and how Mexican bonds and equity funds, as was the case in other emerging countries, started to attract institutional investors from around the world. The research uses archival sources, such as reports to shareholders, press reports and interviews.