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Celebrating Banamex 130 and Reaffirming Citi's Commitment to Mexico
September 23, 2014
This month, Citi CEO Mike Corbat and Manuel Medina-Mora, Co-President of Citi, CEO, Global Consumer Banking and Chairman, Mexico, visited Mexico to meet with President Enrique Peña Nieto, along with Javier Arrigunaga, CEO of Banamex, and announce ambitious investment and credit expansion programs in Mexico for the coming four years.
As part of this investment package, Citi is designating approximately U.S. $1.5 billion for direct investments in technology and infrastructure. Some $10 billion will fund multiple projects in the energy sector, and $4 billion will be assigned to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Mexico.
The event took place at Banamex's downtown Mexico City headquarters, where the Banco Nacional de México (Banamex) was established 130 years ago. The Mexican Secretary of Finance and members of the Banamex Board were also present at the event.
One of the most ambitious investments is the new Data Center located in the state of Querétaro. Construction on the project began in 2012. The center will be the key system processing location for various transactions for Banamex and will connect with Citi's platforms around the world. The infrastructure of this center will have the capacity to process the more than one billion monthly transactions currently generated by Banamex, and provide operational support to over 1,600 branches, 6,500 ATMs, 94,000 POS terminals, and manage an average of 12.2 billion cash transactions per year.
This new Data Center in Mexico joins the other strategic centers that Citi has in the U.S., UK, Germany, Singapore and Hong Kong. Additionally, this new Data Center is housed inside an environmentally friendly, LEED certified building.
In addition to these investments, Banamex also announced the substantial expansion of the credit portfolio for SMEs by over $4 billion for the next four years, and for projects in the energy and infrastructure sectors, with approximately $10 billion between 2014 and 2018, both via direct credits and debt and capital markets operations.
These investments are consistent with Citi's efforts to support the communities where we do business, and compliment the sustainable growth which is expected for Mexico for the coming years. The further integration of Banamex and Citi allows us to serve our clients with distinction and bring the benefits of our global network to a market with an incredible potential.