Mexican banks have managed to improve their financial intermediation standards, which has translated into better services and products for all Mexicans. At the same time the financial inclusion has advanced in the population of all social levels, Alejandro Valenzuela, president of the Board of Directors of Azteca Bank.
In his opinion, the bank has fulfilled its shared responsibility so that Mexicans have access to financial services, and there is a bank that has learned a lot from its past mistakes.
Unlike recent crises, such as that of 2008, in which Mexico was simply a victim of the unprudent management of the world’s largest banks, Mexican banks were able to overcome and at the same time support their clients during the pandemic.
“There has been good management of the financial sector, and that has helped a lot to keep financial penetration moving forward, we have not been in those horrible cycles of growing and then stopping to grow again. I believe that this is a shared responsibility where everyone has done their part,” he noted.
He considered that it should be recognized that in this administration was kept macroeconomic stabilityso the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador “must be recognized for taking great care in what he did.”
He pointed out that although stability was maintained with the fundamental resources of the economy and taxes were not increased, there are concerns for this year, in the sense that the public deficit is widening “and some other issues that seem to me to be “They can undermine the country a little forward.”
“Taxes remained where the administration of former President Enrique Peña Nieto left them and that continuity must be celebrated, as in everything, it is an electoral year, electoral years are always complex, they are environments where public spending often increases” , said.
Of course, he indicated, although today there is a positive environment due to correct management in macroeconomic matters, the The next federal administration will have as its main challenge the management of Pemex.
“Pemex has many problems, it is generating a growing need for resources from the Federal Government to maintain the operation and the issue is how far the breaking point goes. It must be analyzed that the country has scarce resources and the issue must be fixed,” he warned.
Even so, given the current management of public finances, the next administration could arrive with everything to gain in terms of stability, with inflation and interest rates falling, which he estimated “will be very good for the Mexican economy; The reality is that we have had economic peace in Mexico despite the enormous challenges.”
Reach every corner
For Valenzuela del Río, who recently assumed the presidency of the Board of Directors of Banco Azteca, although progress has been made in financial inclusion, a task in which he highlighted that the institution has worked hard so that more Mexicans have access to banking, pending on this issue there are still many.
“We must all work harder to achieve greater financial inclusion, we must reach all corners of the country, we must achieve much better knowledge of the virtues and limitations of leveraging, using credit correctly, using deposits and deposits as a way to save, there is still a lot to do,” he noted.
Moving forward on this issue, he said, is something that benefits everyone and strengthens the country; Yes, it must be accompanied by financial education. And it is in that area where Banco Azteca is willing to continue investing and innovatingusing data science to provide better service to customers, to offer what they require and in a personalized way, a topic on which they are already working with artificial intelligence.
