Citibanamex Logo

Citibanamex traces its roots to June 2, 1884, when Banco Nacional de México, later known as Banamex, was formed through the merger of Banco Nacional Mexicano and Banco Mercantil Mexicano. The first was backed by Paris bankers and held a government concession. At the same time, the second relied mainly on Spanish and German capital. José Valentín del Collado Albo became the first director.

From the start, Banamex held a privileged role in Mexico’s financial system. Its banknotes were once the only ones accepted by the federal government for tax payments, and it acted as a financial intermediary between President Porfirio Díaz and foreign creditors. The bank opened branches in Mérida, Veracruz, Puebla, Guanajuato, and San Luis Potosí, issued Mexico’s first bank check in 1886, and by 1937 controlled 36 of the country’s 50 bank branches.

In 1946, Banamex launched Mexico’s first drive-in banking service. From 1955 to 1964, it moved into consumer loans and mortgages, later introducing Latin America’s first credit card and ATM. In 1982, after the debt crisis and the peso collapse, President José López Portillo nationalized Mexico’s private banks, placing Banamex under state control for 9 years.

In 1991, under President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Banamex was privatized. A group led by Roberto Hernández and Alfredo Harp Helú, founders of Accival, bought about 71% of the company for roughly $4.6–5 billion, forming Grupo Financiero Banamex–Accival. After the 1994 peso crisis, the bank entered the FOBAPROA rescue program and repaid it by 2000. In August 2001, Citigroup bought Grupo Financiero Banamex-Accival for $12.5 billion, later creating the Citibanamex brand and merging it with Citibank’s Mexican operations.