Banorte relies on technology to compete with foreign banks

The actuary said that since 2020 a plan was started to buy technology and thus standardize the information with the banks that were acquired in previous years. “We realized that we were a bunch of banks that had been bought and were all agglutinated within Banorte: there was Banpaís, Bancentro, Bancrecer, Ixe and the one we recently bought: Interacciones”, said Ramírez.

Banorte’s history began in 1986, when it was merged Banco Mercantil de Monterrey and Banco Regional del Norte . In 1992, businessman Roberto González Barrera bought the corporation and began a long history of mergers and acquisitions. In 1993, Afin was purchased, two years later Bancentro was acquired and two years later, in 1997, Banpaís was acquired.

In 2001 it took 100% of Bancrecer and in 2006 it acquired Inter National Bank (which it will sell in 2016) and the Uniteller remittance company in the United States. A year later, he bought the US remittance company Motran. In 2011 it merged with Ixe and in 2018 it made a new merger, now with Interacciones.

Now, with the acquisition of this new technology, Marcos Ramírez explains that the Group has a “multimodal box” to which anything can be plugged.

“We can buy Israeli technology and it works. The (technology) produced at home works; we have a box that works multimodally and when you buy technology you plug it into what’s new. We have a super healthy foundation and super adaptable to technologies”, she highlighted.

The manager explained that when a new bank is purchased, it is not always clear whether they will keep their own technology or that of that bank. “What we did is totally scalable, so we can adapt any technology. It is one of the greatest prides we have and not everyone can do that”.

With a history full of mergers and acquisitions, it would not be unusual to think that they would be interested in acquiring Banamex. President López Obrador has even declared that he wants the bank to be “Mexicanized” and that it would be ideal if entrepreneurs like Carlos Slim or Carlos Hank buy from the bank.

Citigroup, parent of Citibanamex, announced last January that it was putting the retail business in Mexico up for sale , that is, the banking business, Afore, insurance and personal credit; the entire infrastructure as well as the cultural and historical heritage is also put up for sale.

Marcos Ramírez is blunt: “In the specific case of Citi, we will evaluate when we see the information. It does not depend in the least on me, that is, it depends on the information being opened and then we will decide whether to start the process or not”.

The banker assures that he has not spoken with his boss, Carlos Hank, on the subject, since they are waiting for information. He also said that in cases like this, there is nothing to be gained by getting ahead of the game.

“We’ve already done a lot of mergers and you don’t gain anything by getting ahead of yourself. The only thing I can tell you is that I have seen many processes, I have already lost my hair, ”she jokes.

forward plans

Banorte wants to focus on growing and keeping its largest clients, one of them being Pemex. The financial group has an exposure of 4.8% to the oil company and its suppliers, according to its information as of the fourth quarter of 2021.

Recently, Marcos Ramírez held a meeting with the oil company, since at least once a year he must meet with the bank’s 15 or 20 largest clients.

“They are very productive meetings. We saw the pending tasks that we have and it is a continuation of the business. We are increasing (exposure) the appetite we have is great as long as all these projects are bankable. We are involved in all of them and we have gained market share and we want to continue increasing it. The competition is tough,” said Ramírez.

Asked if a bank like Banorte that is betting on adhering to ESG criteria should continue to increase its stake in Pemex, as an oil company and a refinery builder, Ramírez said that these constructions are necessary.

“Today you can’t stop a refinery, you can’t, we all would like to, neither we nor the United States nor anywhere in the world can. There are places where they have nuclear power, no, I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but You can’t stop it,” he said.

Another of the challenges that the Group faces in the next six months, at least, is to deal with the pressure that COVID-19 put on the life insurance business, since in 2021 the high number of deaths caused a high accident rate and the contraction of profits of 45% in the insurance business.

Recovering from that high level of claims will take around 6 months, Ramírez calculates. “Although in three months they tell you that no one has died of COVID, we still have pending tasks. The actuarial calculations we have is that in 6 months it will stabilize, that is if there are no new waves or variants.”

The manager said that the pandemic modified the actuarial calculations that were used in the measurement of life insurance.