By Valentine Hilaire and Noe Torres
MERIDA, Mexico, March 16 (Reuters) - The Mexican arm of Spain's Banco Santander plans to launch
digital lender Openbank by the end of March 2024 to offer
checking accounts, credit cards and other services over time,
the head of the local unit said on Thursday.
"We need to 'tropicalize' it and make it fit for the Mexican
market and regulation," Santander's Mexico country head Felipe
Garcia told Reuters in an interview, adding that because the
digital bank already operates in Argentina and some European
countries the operation will not be starting from scratch.
Mexico was an attractive market for the digital lender
because it had a relatively low level of banking penetration
compared to other Latin American countries and a very young
population, he said, with the launch poised to help integrate
more people into the financial system.
Garcia did not say how much Spain's biggest bank would
invest in the move.
Santander last month valued its Mexican business at around
8.1 billion euros with the launch of a voluntary tender offer to
acquire shares it does not own, a step towards its de-listing.
The unit is Mexico's third-biggest bank by the size of its
credit portfolio and managed some 810 billion pesos ($43.23
billion) at the end of last year, according to data from the
national banking regulator.
Its shares closed Thursday at 24.20 pesos, a slight gain of
0.12% from the day before.
($1 = 18.7385 Mexican pesos)
(Reporting by Valentine Hilaire and Noe Torres; Editing by
Sarah Morland and Jamie Freed)
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