Banks, fines and zero prosecution

Regarding Mexican financial institutions accused of alleged money laundering by the U.S. Treasury Department, government messages have been received in recent hours that may cause confusion.

This morning, the Mexican president confirmed that the Attorney General's Office has no open investigation into CI Banco, Intercam, and Vector, Casa de Bolsa.

More specifically, he stated that individuals do not have an investigation file as such unless there is a sanction issued by the U.S. Treasury Department.

However, he also said that if anything irregular was found in these processes, it would be reported.

What there is, the president explained, are sanctions from the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) itself, due to administrative problems.

In short, the Mexican government is not pursuing any individual from the three financial institutions it is imposing multimillion-dollar sanctions on for irregularities in their money laundering processes.

In short, the Mexican government has assured that there are no investigations against anyone.

Although there are heavy fines for institutions.

The CNBV later released, through X, the update of the sanctions applied by that body.

Million-dollar fines were reported against the two banks and the brokerage firm under suspicion.

The originally announced amount of 134 million pesos was updated to 185 million pesos.

The CNBV (National Commission for the Promotion of Investments) has narrowed down the Vector Casa de Bolsa case. It says the fines are related to irregularities in investment funds.

The National Banking and Securities Commission's fundamental reasoning, and the same for both banks, is that they committed irregularities related to the prevention of money laundering.

From the outset, when the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) accusations against these financial institutions for alleged money laundering were made public, the Mexican government asserted, and continues to assert, that it has not received conclusive evidence from the Treasury Department to confirm the accusations.

However, the Ministry of Finance, through the CNBV, immediately implemented a managerial intervention in the three institutions, with the goal of protecting the resources and investments of savers and clients and avoiding a financial run. As a result of these actions, FinCen extended the original 21-day deadline by an additional 45 days, until September 4.

The CNBV has stated that the sanctions seek to correct detected flaws, strengthen oversight of the financial system, and protect savers and investors, especially in a context of international criticism.

In the afternoon, the Ministry of Finance issued a statement clarifying that the fines reported by the CNBV are the same, albeit updated, as those previously reported and correspond to non-compliance with administrative processes.

The Treasury emphasized that it will act to the fullest extent of the law if it obtains conclusive information proving illicit activities at the three financial institutions involved.

In the messages issued, there seems to be a contradiction.

How is it possible that three financial institutions have been sanctioned with multimillion-dollar fines for administrative irregularities related to money laundering prevention (in the case of banks) and no one has been held responsible?

Could it be understood that if the processes to prevent money laundering failed, this type of illegal activity could have been recorded?

Or were they actually administrative irregularities unrelated to money laundering? It's unclear.

The Mexican government has a broken telephone system, or at best, a terrible tact in disseminating messages.

For now, it's a significant financial blow to the fined institutions, and a notable lack of coordination in their communications strategy.

As if it were necessary, in the face of serious accusations from the United States against three national financial institutions, local authorities are stumbling over their own messages. Meanwhile.

GLIMPSES

Actinver, headed by Luis Hernández, could be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the crisis affecting the banks targeted by the Treasury Department.

Actinver could capture up to 30% of the trust business that CI Banco and Intercam had previously had.

According to Actinver's CEO, Francisco Lira, they have so far received applications from 60 prospective clients seeking to transfer their trust funds from those institutions to Actinver.