PT government invests in mobile banking to lead Mexican digitisation

Under the stewardship of new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the Mexican government has stated that it will invest in improving day-to-day financial technologies and transactional networks improving the lives of all citizens.

Taking control of the Mexican government last December, President Lopez Obrador who is commonly referred to by the moniker of AMLO, has stated that his Presidency will deliver Mexico’s most successful administration at eradicating poverty.

Leading a diverse left-wing ‘PT’ coalition, the Lopez Obrador administration announced this week initial plans to revamp Mexico’s banking and financial services frameworks. PT states that current systems have left millions of Mexicans excluded from the digital age.  

Declaring a key administrative directive, PT officials presented the launch of the ‘CoDI Mexico project’ which will form a new centralised financial infrastructure for Mexican consumer, further pushing licensed banks to develop mobile-first banking properties.

Speaking to the media, CoDI stakeholder Arturo Herrara, Mexico’s Deputy Finance Minister, stated that the country remained behind other developing markets, with regards to digitising its economy and services.

Seeking to develop Mexico’s digital economy, AMLO and PT outlined that at present 40 million Mexicans lack any form of bank account – a social factor that could be overcome through mobile dynamics.   

“In the future, it will no longer be necessary to have a bank in the sense of a traditional, established bank,” said Arturo Herrera, Mexico’s deputy finance minister. “Mobile phones will become banks.”

In the mandate, PT and AMLO have stated that the CoDI project will be supported by a number of corporate incentives to invest in Mexican digital infrastructures, detailing that national telecoms carriers have been told to significantly drop broadband, mobile and GPRS prices.

However, AMLO has stated that national telecoms carriers will be supported by significant investments aimed at improving Mexico broadband and mobile network coverage.