MEXICO Law and Practice Contributed by: Lizette Neme, Andrea López-Malo, Shannon Reilly, Rodolfo Flores and Dunia Salum, Áurea Partners
2.2 Regulatory Regime All financial regulation in Mexico is federal. Financial authorities grant three types of licences based on the financial institution: registrations, authorisations and concessions. Oversight and enforcement are shared among the fol - lowing authorities. • Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público (SHCP): the finance ministry responsible for financial policy and oversight of the financial system, including co-ordinating the banking and securities sectors, overseeing AML/CFT policy and developing and issuing high level financial regulations. • Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (National Banking and Securities Commission) (CNBV): the primary regulator responsible for authorising, regulating, supervising and enforcing compliance for banks, fintechs and other regulated financial institutions. • Banco de México (“Banxico”): Mexico’s central bank, mandated to issue and supply the national currency, promote the healthy development and proper functioning of payment systems, and set certain regulatory conditions for financial opera - tions, mainly related to payments. • Comisión Nacional para la Protección y Defensa de los Usuarios de Servicios Financieros (National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Financial Services Users) (CONDUSEF): the finan - cial consumer protection authority responsible for promoting transparency and financial educa - tion, handling complaints and claims from users of financial services, and safeguarding consumers rights. • Comisión Nacional de Seguros y Fianzas (National Insurance and Bonding Commission) (CNSF): the insurance and surety regulator responsible for authorising, supervising and regulating insurance companies, bonding institutions and other entities operating in the insurance and surety sector. • Comisión Nacional del Sistema de Ahorro para el Retiro (National Commission of the Retire - ment Savings System) (CONSAR): responsible for overseeing and regulating the Mexican retirement savings system.
investment funds, while others operate as unregulated commercial entities that are not subject to direct finan - cial supervision. Consequently, a significant portion of the sector provides financial services through strate - gic partnerships with licensed entities or by navigat - ing specialised provisions within existing legal frame - works rather than the Fintech Law itself. As of 2025, the following verticals dominate the fin - tech market in Mexico. • Payments and remittances: central to Mexico’s fin - tech boom due to the high volume of cross-border transactions, particularly received from the USA. • Lending: includes consumers and small and medi - um-sized companies financing. Lending continues to offer new solutions to the users with no credit history and unserved users by legacy players, often supported by alternative data and AI-driven credit assessment models. • Insurtech: focused on disrupting legacy players by offering personalised micro-insurance primarily through mobile apps, targeting underserved users. • Wealthtech: focused on helping individuals and businesses manage their investments, retire - ment funds and savings, this segment leads in AI adoption, particularly in portfolio optimisation and customer analytics. • Neo-banking: fully digital banks that provide bank - ing services through mobile apps. In this model, legacy players participate by launching their digital branches. • Cryptocurrency: the number of non-regulated fintechs using crypto technology is increasing. The increase in adoption is driven by the remittances segment and the use of stablecoins, primarily as a functional medium for payments rather than as speculative investment products. Fintechs are driving innovation in areas like digital lending, insurtech, and payments and remittances, while legacy players are increasingly embracing digi - tal transformation to stay competitive. Collaborations and partnerships are playing an increasingly central role in shaping the next phase of market development.
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