The official unveiling of Mexico's newest bank, Banco Ve por Mas, on 11 October was welcome news indeed for a country whose banking sector has experienced considerable consolidation in the last 10 years.
As a niche bank, focused on small business and agriculture financing, Ve por Mas in no way represents a competitive threat to the handful of big banks that dominate the sector. But it certainly is heartening to see ‘old hands’ like Mexico's Del Valle family venturing back into banking.
The family bought Banco Bital in the early 1990s when the government privatised the sector and successfully guided the bank through the 1995 financial crisis. That is no small feat if one considers that 14 of the country's 18 retail banks went bust in the years following that disaster.
Since opening its doors in May, Ve por Mas, which bought its license from Dresdner Bank Mexico, has built up a loan book of 600m pesos and captured about 200m pesos (US$52.4m) in deposits...
