The government takes this issue very seriously because when you become a bank, your deposits have a guarantee backed by IPAB. If the bank were to have problems, the government would have to take responsibility, so it must ensure that it follows the same rules as others. However, these regulations will have to wait until after 2026, officials have warned. Impact on Traditional Banking The entry of these new banks will pose a risk to the traditional banking sector, experts warn. 'We could say they will shake them up because these neobanks offer other opportunities,' Vértiz considered. For example, a niche opportunity will be credit for small and medium-sized enterprises. Also waiting in line are Mercado Pago, Klar, and Finsus, who have just submitted their applications. However, these projects were affected by investigations launched by FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) in the middle of last year, resulting in alerts about alleged money laundering that heavily impacted Ci Banco, Intercam, and Vector, even though the allegations were not confirmed by Mexican authorities. Although this scandal did not escalate into a systemic crisis for the financial sector, it put pressure on the banking regulator, which is now carrying out much more detailed regulation, added to the crises the Sofipo sector itself faced (remember the case of CAME, among others), which led the commission to deprioritize their requests, explained financier Álvaro Vértiz to LPO. Towards Banking, Moody's Analytics points to the lack of credit to companies On the other hand, Felipe Carvallo, Vice President and Senior Credit Officer at Moody's Investors Service, told LPO that the transition from Sofipo to bank is a very important step. 'There is no light regulation,' he said. Despite this greater demand, Vértiz considered that there is a possibility that Nu will operate as a bank this year, as long as it meets all the requirements of the law. In contrast, these types of firms offer greater convenience, combined with more modern platforms that can be more attractive to the user. A sector to which, despite government efforts, banking has arrived late and with difficulty. While banks are making efforts to modernize their technology and face more problems in flexibilizing their requirements. Sheinbaum seeks for banks to reduce their requirements to grant more credits to SMEs For the Moody's analyst, it is also about new opportunities, where traditional banks are opening up to new forms of business and offering better services to their clients, such as better rates. However, he reiterated that for these financial institutions, transitioning to a bank is not an easy task, as it requires many resources. In the pending portfolio of Ángel Cabrera Mendoza, head of the banking regulator CNBV, is the definitive approval of a bank license for NU and three more applications in the same process. The same goes for the rest: 'Knowing the structure of these three, I think they have solid elements to pursue it,' he said. 'We will have to see if they can also maintain their competitiveness,' reflected Carvallo. A slow process amid greater pressures from the Treasury in the United States. The Sofipo case is the most advanced, but it still awaits approval, despite obtaining its license in April 2025.
