Mexican financial authorities promote alternative measures to the new Bank of Mexico Law

The Central Bank of Mexico, in its building in the center of Mexico City DANIEL BECERRIL / Reuters

In response to the controversial initiative to reform the Bank of Mexico Law, the banking authorities on Monday proposed new measures to solve the problem that the reform raises: that migrants have better options to exchange the remittances they send in dollars to national currency. .

From opening accounts from abroad to helping commercial banks that cannot repatriate their surplus dollars, the measures are an alternative to the reform that today is awaiting the vote of the deputies.

Authorities of the Bank of Mexico, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, the Association of Banks of Mexico, the National Banking and Securities Commission, regulator of the sector, as well as Banco del Bienestar, a public development bank, have assured in a round from the press that the proposals were made because the senators, who voted in favor of the reform proposal, "triggered the reflection" of a real problem for the country: migrants who want to exchange their dollars for pesos in the national territory are forced to to do so at an exchange rate due to anti-money laundering restrictions.

"These proposals that we are making today respond to the fundamental concern, which was to ensure that migrants have access to the appropriate exchange rate in a safe way," Herrera assured.

In December, when the proposal advanced in the Senate, Herrera declared against it, arguing that it did not solve the problem raised.

The proposal has been a source of criticism and fierce opposition from specialists, members of the banking sector and even the Bank of Mexico itself, who argue that, by forcing it to attract foreign currency in cash at a preferential exchange rate, its autonomy.

The measures announced this Monday are focused on the banking of those migrants who do not have a bank account that allows them to send their remittances electronically.

To do this, work will be done with consulates, embassies and Banco del Bienestar branches will be built to reach the most remote parts of the country where commercial banks do not reach.

Banco de México has said that it will develop a website and mobile application to guide migrants to the nearest exchange centers and bank branches.

There is a private bank in Mexico that has the upper hand if the law reform passes in the Chamber of Deputies.

The deputy governor of the Bank of Mexico, Jonathan Heath, criticized in December, through his Twitter account, that a law reform was being proposed "to favor a single company, especially with a negative record with the US SEC."

In an interview with EL PAÍS, Treasury Secretary Arturo Herrera confirmed that there is a bank in Mexico that lost its most important correspondent contract, necessary to repatriate dollars in cash, "but it has other correspondents," he added.

The governor of the Bank of Mexico, Alejandro Díaz de León, announced that the central bank "will provide facilities to credit institutions that have justified difficulties to repatriate dollars in cash, through guaranteed contingent financing, under the terms and conditions determined by the Bank".

The governor did not provide further details on this funding.

In addition, Banco de México undertook to develop a technological platform that will make it possible to verify migrant information more easily and quickly, thus strengthening money laundering controls in the financial system.

The rest of the proposed measures include: offering exchange operations in processing modules to migrants, sale of bank cards, denominated in pesos, so that people who enter the national territory can pay for goods and services, expand the list of municipalities in where credit institutions and their correspondents have authorization to receive cash dollars to speed up the process of incorporating into the financial system the cash dollars seized from the crime and in favor of the Mexican State.