HSBC México, S.A., the principal operating company of Grupo Financiero HSBC, S.A. de C.V., is one of Mexico’s four largest banking and financial service companies, with 1,400 branches and 5,200 ATMs. HSBC purchased Banco Internacional, S.A. known as Bital, in November 2002, several years after Bital participated in the controversial
Fobaproa, which rescued the nation's banks from the 1994 crisis, at the cost of the Mexican taxpayers.
HSBC's Mexico headquarters are at
Torre HSBC
HSBC Tower ( es, Torre HSBC) is a skyscraper office building located on Paseo de la Reforma in Colonia Cuauhtémoc, Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City, Mexico, which is the headquarters of HSBC Mexico. It is located opposite the Angel of Independence, ...
on the
Paseo de la Reforma near the
Angel of Independence in
Colonia Cuauhtémoc,
Cuauhtémoc,
Mexico City.
In July 2012, the
US Senate accused HSBC of breaching safeguards that should have stopped the laundering of money from Mexico. HSBC had laundered over $800 million dollars for the
Sinaloa cartel and the
Norte del Valle cartel. HSBC agreed to pay a 1 Billion dollar fine and separate itself from former executives
Sandy Flockhart
Alexander Andrew "Sandy" Flockhart CBE (, born 22 December 1951) is a former CEO of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.
Early life
He was born in the UK and brought up and educated in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he attended Geor ...
and
Michael Geoghegan
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...
.
Bital joins the HSBC Group
HSBC Holdings plc
HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tril ...
acquired
GF Bital on November 22, 2002.
Rebranding
They were first known as Banco del Atlantico during the 1980s and later changed to Bital. On January 29, 2004 the entire branch network of
Bital
Grupo Financiero Bital SA was Mexico's fifth-largest bank.
History
Bital was first known as Banco del Atlantico during the 1980s and later was changed to Bital. It was the last Mexican bank whose balance sheet was still struggling from the 1995 Me ...
(
Banco Internacional
Banco may refer to:
Places
* Banc (Barcelona Metro), also called Banco, a closed metro stop on the Barcelona metro
* Banco, Virginia, an unincorporated community
* Banco, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
* Banco National Park, a nation ...
) was rebranded as HSBC overnight. HSBC saturated newspapers, television and radio, purchased advertising space on every luggage trolley at
Mexico City International Airport
Mexico City International Airport ( es, link=yes, Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México, AICM); officially ''Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez'' (Benito Juárez International Airport) is the main international airport serving ...
, on the sides of taxis, on buses, on the plastic bags in which newspapers are delivered, on flower stalls the side of tall buildings around Mexico City. That same day
Bital
Grupo Financiero Bital SA was Mexico's fifth-largest bank.
History
Bital was first known as Banco del Atlantico during the 1980s and later was changed to Bital. It was the last Mexican bank whose balance sheet was still struggling from the 1995 Me ...
customers received new
credit cards
A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...
with the HSBC logo and notification of changes to their account numbers.
Mexican banking
Under the HSBC brand, the bank maintains a network of around 1400 branches nationwide, with the longest opening hours (8AM-7PM) including Saturdays.
An innovation brought to the Mexican market was the first
fixed-rate mortgage, which was an unusual product in Mexico, but was chosen to appeal to low-income customers concerned with the
repossession
Repossession, colloquially repo, is a "self-help" type of action, mainly in the United States, in which the party having right of ownership of the property in question takes the property back from the party having right of possession without in ...
s that followed the crisis of 1994-95.
ATM network
HSBC was the first Mexican bank to offer pre-approved personal loans via
ATMs, and also has a program called "Niños con Futuro" which allows customers to make charitable
donations via ATMs - this idea has since been taken up by
HSBC Bank UK. HSBC Mexico also deploys advanced computerized modeling techniques to predict usage patterns for ATMs and ensure that they are best placed for usage and hence profit.
Pensions
On August 14, 2003, HSBC agreed to acquire AFORE Allianz Dresdner, S.A. de C.V., from the
Allianz Group.
Other Mexican Operations
HSBC México, S.A. Institución de Banca Múltiple (Bank)
HSBC Seguros, S.A. de C.V. (Insurance)
HSBC Afore, S.A. de C.V. (Pension Fund)
HSBC Fianzas, S.A.
HSBC Casa de Bolsa, S.A. de C.V. (Stockbroker)
HSBC Operadora de Fondos, S.A. de C.V.
HSBC also has a 19.99 percent stake in
Financiera Independencia, S.A. de C.V. and its affiliate
Serfincor, S.A. de C.V. which was acquired in the first half of 2006.
Regional Operations
As a principal member of the
HSBC Group HSBC Mexico is responsible for other operations in the area, principally
HSBC Bank (Panama) S.A.,
HSBC Colombia S.A. formerly
Grupo Banistmo, HSBC Costa Rica through the acquisition of the local bank
Banex, HSBC El Salvador by the acquisition of the local bank
Banco Salvadoreño and HSBC Honduras through what was BGA.
Money laundering
In December 2012, HSBC was penalized $1.9 billion (US), the largest fine under the
Bank Secrecy Act, for violating four U.S. laws designed to protect the U.S. financial system.
HSBC had allegedly laundered at least $881 million in drugs proceeds through the U.S. financial system for international cartels, as well as processing an additional $660 million for banks in US sanctioned countries. According to the report, "The U.S. bank subsidiary
lsofailed to monitor more than $670 billion in wire transfers and more than $9.4 billion in purchases of physical dollars from its Mexico unit."
As part of the agreement deferring its prosecution, HSBC acknowledged that for years it had ignored warning signs that drug cartels in Mexico were using its branches to launder millions of dollars, and also acknowledged that HSBC's international staff had stripped identifying information on transactions made through the United States from countries facing economic sanctions such as Iran and Sudan.
[HSBC: Too big to jail?](_blank)
''CNNMoney'', James O'Toole, 12 December 2012. Former HSBC Mexico Chief Executive
Sandy Flockhart
Alexander Andrew "Sandy" Flockhart CBE (, born 22 December 1951) is a former CEO of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.
Early life
He was born in the UK and brought up and educated in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he attended Geor ...
retired in 2012 from HSBC as part of the deal with the US authorities.
See also
*
HSBC Holdings plc
HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tril ...
References
Bibliography
*HSBC Mexico website
*Financial Times article 'The difference a name makes', John Authers, 6 May 2004
External links
HSBC Bank Mexico
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hsbc Mexico
Banks established in 1941
Banks of Mexico
Mexico
Mexican subsidiaries of foreign companies
1941 establishments in Mexico