For a president who often lingers at the podium, the message that Andrés Manuel López Obrador offered to Mexico's bankers at their annual convention was unusually short.
Just over eleven minutes were enough to list 10 economic achievements of his Administration, including record formal jobs and higher salaries.
But it was his commitment not to change the laws relevant to the sector when the attendees burst into applause: "I finish, friends, friends of the banking sector, reiterating the commitment I made since the beginning of the Government not to change the rules for the operation of banks in Mexico.
Keep doing legal business in Mexico.
Continue to earn legitimate and reasonable profits.”
The Banking Convention 86, organized by the Association of Banks of Mexico, in the city of Mérida, Yucatán, brought together 1,300 attendees this Thursday.
It is the only event of the year that brings together the plenary session of the López Obrador government, including officials from the Ministry of Finance, and the governor of the central bank with the country's banking elite.
On Wednesday, the López Obrador Administration published a decree in the Official Gazette of the Federation in which it asks the agencies to cancel their accounts in private banks and transfer their resources to a government institution.
However, neither López Obrador, nor the Treasury officials who took the stage on Thursday night in Mérida, referred to the controversial issue.
López Obrador also highlighted that the banks in Mexico made juicy profits last year.
"The report of profits in 2022, of the Mexican commercial bank, was 236,743 million pesos, something never seen," said the president, "these profits had never been obtained for the banks."
The panic in the banking sector in the United States and Europe in recent days, starting with the failure of three banks and the possible injection of liquidity to one of the largest in Europe, Credit Suisse, have dominated the conversation at the Banking Convention.
Shares of some Mexican banks have fallen in the past week on the news.
"The Mexican banking system is well capitalized and has adequate levels of liquidity," said the governor of the Bank of Mexico, Victoria Rodríguez.
"Even in the face of adverse but plausible scenarios, banks remain solvent and with sufficient liquidity," she added.
The Secretary of Finance, Rogelio Ramírez de la O, also took advantage of his time at the podium to emphasize that Mexican banks are characterized by their "financial robustness at a systemic level."
The event will close this Friday with a presentation by the former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
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