This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2023) |
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Financial services |
Founded | 26 October 2002 |
Headquarters | Mexico City, Mexico |
Products | Banking, Financial |
Parent | Grupo Elektra (subsidiary of Grupo Salinas) |
Website | www.bancoazteca.com |
Banco Azteca is a financial institution headquartered in Mexico and is part of Grupo Elektra, which is part of Grupo Salinas, a Mexican conglomerate with interests in banking, media, retail and telecommunications. Founded in October 2002 by businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego, Banco Azteca's focus has been to promote financial inclusion by serving the segments of the population most neglected by traditional banking, providing financial services to middle and lower income groups.
Grupo Elektra has more than four thousand points of contact in Mexico, the United States and Central America.
In 2002, Mexican businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego decided to create a banking institution focused on the country's underbanked segment. A year earlier, he had applied to the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit for an operating license, which was finally granted in March 2002. Banco Azteca officially began operations on 30 October of that year. [1] [2]
The institution was created using the geographical presence of the group, thanks to the Elektra stores, a retail chain of Grupo Elektra. By 2003, Banco Azteca had more than 800 branches in these stores, eight independent contact points and 96 modules in various third-party channels. In the same year, the bank signed an agreement with the National Workers' Housing Fund Institute (INFONAVIT) to provide mortgage services.
In 2004, Banco Azteca entered the insurance sector with the creation of Seguros Azteca. In the same year, it began offering bank loans to small farmers and launched the Empresario Azteca initiative to finance small and medium-sized enterprises. In 2005, it became the first Mexican bank to operate internationally, opening branches in Panama and launching the Azteca Card.
After sponsoring the Mexican national football team in 2007, it ventured into the markets of Guatemala, Honduras and Argentina, and opened branches in Brazil and Peru the following year. In 2009, it began operations in El Salvador.
The institution began the decade by launching the prepaid card Monedero Azteca aimed at popular markets. In 2014 it developed its mobile application to enter the digital market and a year later it implemented the "Learn and Grow" educational program in Guatemala.
In 2015 banking executive Alejandro Valenzuela del Río took over as the institution's director. The bank celebrated its fifteenth anniversary in 2017 at an event at Campo Marte in Mexico City. In 2018 the institution ranked thirteenth on the BrandZTop 30 list of Mexico's most valuable brands compiled by the global data company Kantar Millward Brown with a value of 1.167 billion dollars. In 2019 the bank participated in financial inclusion forums such as the Women's Economic Forum and the Women's Forum Americas in Mexico City. The same year it inaugurated the "Space Academy of Savernauts" a financial culture exhibition aimed at children and young people. It was exhibited for two years at the Interactive Museum of Economics.
In 2020, the institution launched a new financial product called Mobile Azteca Business Banking and reached the milestone of 10 million registered users of its mobile application. According to a report presented by Grupo Salinas, around 70% of the bank's transactions were carried out through mobile digital channels that year. The launch of ApiLAB, a new digital platform aimed at offering Banco Azteca's products and services through third parties, was announced by Juan Carlos Arroyo, general director of Grupo Elektra Digital, at the "APIs in the Transformation of Mexico" forum held in November 2020.
Arroyo also stated that the platform will be launched in 2021. The bank allocated 11 billion pesos to optimize its digitalization system.
In 2023, Banco Azteca reinforced its commitment to sport by sponsoring the Mexican Olympic team. The bank supported Mexican athletes participating in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and on their way to Los Angeles 2028. [3]
In January 2024, Banco Azteca was formed when Grupo Elektra received the required financial services licence. The bank began operating on January 7, 2024.
The bank was criticized in a 2024 Bloomberg Businessweek magazine article for abusing microcredit practices in Mexico due to lax bankruptcy, consumer protection and interest rates laws of the country. [4] [5] In May 2024, Banco Azteca was named by the United States Department of Justice as part of a bribery indictment against Henry Cuellar who allegedly received illicit funds via a Banco Azteca executive in exchange for political influence affecting U.S. anti-money laundering legislation. [6] [7] [8]
Banco Azteca's business focus has been to serve the most underserved segments of the population, providing financial services to middle and lower income groups. According to Alejandro Valenzuela, CEO of Banco Azteca, the bank was "born as a popular institution" and "uses financial inclusion not as a rhetorical issue, but as a business model". The executive also stated that the bank's vocation is to create opportunities for its clients to join the financial system, "reaching the lagging areas of the country".
The study, "From Pawn Shops to Banks: The Impact of Formal Credit on Informal Households" by the University of California, in Los Angeles, mentions Banco Azteca as the first bank in Mexico to target informal sector households and states that these households have experienced several changes in their savings, credit and consumption patterns. The study "The Economic Impact of Banking the Unbanked: Evidence from Mexico', published by the World Bank, mentions that the institution has contributed to improving access to credit and formal financial services with for low-income populations by focusing on previously underserved areas.
The Mexican Stock Exchange, commonly known as Mexican Bolsa, Mexbol, or BMV, is one of two stock exchanges in Mexico, the other being BIVA - Bolsa Institucional de Valores. It is the second largest stock exchange in Latin America, only after São Paulo based B3 in Brasil. It is also the fifth largest stock exchange in the Americas. The exchange platform is owned by BMV Group, which also owns the derivative exchange MexDer and the custody agency Indeval.
Televisión Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V., commonly known as TV Azteca, is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second-largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. It primarily competes with Televisa as well as some local operators. It owns two national television networks, Azteca Uno and Azteca 7, and operates two other nationally distributed services, adn40 and A Más+. All three of these networks have transmitters in most major and minor cities.
Grupo Financiero Banorte, S.A.B. de C.V., doing business as Banorte and as Ixe, is a Mexican banking and financial services holding company with headquarters in Monterrey and Mexico City. It is one of the four largest commercial banks of Mexico by assets and loans, and the largest retirement fund administrator (AFORE).
Ricardo Benjamín Salinas Pliego is a Mexican businessman, founder and chairman of Grupo Salinas, a corporate conglomerate with interests in telecommunications, media, financial services, and retail.
Banco de Sabadell, S.A. is a Spanish multinational financial services company headquartered in Alicante and Barcelona, Spain. It is the 4th-largest Spanish banking group. It includes several banks, brands, subsidiaries and associated banks. It is a universal bank and specialises in serving small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the affluent with a bias towards international trade.
Banco Santander S.A. trading as Santander Group, is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Santander in Spain. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in most global financial centres as the 19th-largest banking institution in the world. Although known for its European banking operations, it has extended operations across North and South America, and more recently in continental Asia. It is considered a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board.
Grupo Salinas is a corporate conglomerate formed in 2001 by several Mexican companies. The group consists of TV Azteca, Grupo Elektra, Mazatlán F.C., Telecosmo, and Italika. Each of these companies operates independently with its own management and board of directors.
Grupo Elektra is a Mexican financial and retailing corporation established by Hugo Salinas Price. The company has operations in Latin America and is the largest non-bank provider of cash advance services in the United States.
XHCJE-TDT, virtual channel 1, is an Azteca Uno owned-and-operated television station located in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. The station is owned by the TV Azteca subsidiary of Grupo Salinas.
BBVA México is the largest Mexican financial institution (2024), having about 20% of the market. Founded in 1932 as Banco de Comercio (Bancomer), and rebranded from 2000 to 2019 as BBVA Bancomer, its main stockholder is the Spanish bank BBVA. Its headquarters are located at the Torre BBVA México on Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City.
Kantar Group Ltd. is an international market research company based in London, England. It was founded in 1992, and has approximately 30,000 employees across over 90 countries working in various research disciplines, including brand guidance, brand strategy, social media monitoring, advertising effectiveness, consumer and shopper behaviour, and public opinion.
The A. B.Freeman School of Business is the business school of Tulane University, located in New Orleans, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The school offers undergraduate programs, a full-time MBA program and other master's programs, a doctoral program, and executive education. It was a charter member of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business in 1916. The school was named in honor of A. B. Freeman, a former chairman of the Louisiana Coca-Cola Bottling Co. and a prominent New Orleans philanthropist. The school is known in the finance community as the publisher of Burkenroad Reports.
Banesco Banco Universal C.A. is a Venezuelan financial institution whose principal branch is located in Caracas. The bank is part of the Asociación Bancaria de Venezuela.
Manuel Sánchez is a Mexican economist with a wide-ranging professional career that includes positions in academics, banking, and central banking. He was nominated by President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa on April 23, 2009, as Deputy Governor and member of the Board of Governors at Banco de México, Mexico's central bank, for a term that ended on December 31, 2016. His appointment was ratified by the Standing Commission of the Mexican Congress on May 27, 2009.
BAC Credomatic is a financial group in Central America, with operations in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Grand Cayman, The Bahamas, and the United States.
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A., better known by its initialism BBVA, is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Madrid and Bilbao, Spain. It is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, and is present mainly in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, South America, Turkey, Italy and Romania.
The Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión, known commercially as Imevisión after 1985, was a state broadcaster and federal government agency of Mexico. At its height, Imevisión programmed two national networks and additional local stations in Mexico City, Chihuahua, Ciudad Juárez, Guadalajara, Mexicali, Tijuana and Monterrey.
AT&T Mexico, S.A.U., also known as AT&T Mexico Wireless and AT&T Mexico Mobility, is a Mexican mobile telephone operator and subsidiary of AT&T. AT&T Mexico is headquartered in Mexico City. Its mobile network is available in 90% of Mexico, serving 13% of the Mexican wireless market. AT&T is the third-largest wireless carrier in Mexico, with 21.603 million subscribers as of December 2022.
Azteca Estudios is a Mexican production company owned by TV Azteca, founded in 1996 by producers Elisa Salinas and Juan David Burns in which it focuses on the direction and production of fiction, specifically telenovelas and television series.
Salinas y Rocha was a chain of Mexican department stores primarily selling appliances.