"The Digitalization of Mexican Retail Banking: The Case of Banamex, 1970s-2010s"

Banco Nacional de Mexico (Banamex), established in 1884 and became the largest and leading retail bank in the country throughout the 20th century. Banamex was nationalised in 1982, privatised in 1992 and sold to foreign capital in 2001 (Citi Group). As has been documented through internal corporate histories, the work of Gustavo del Angel and others, Banamex was a technological trail-blazer throughout most of its history. But in the 21st century it lost business and technological leadership, due to strategic decisions made by the parent company. These decisions ended the almost total freedom at the Mexican subsidiary and brought a large number of business units (including the management of information systems) in line with and following precepts and practices of the US parent.
This paper contributes to prior scholarship by documenting the process of automation of retail banking at Banamex from the early 20th century up to recent times. The paper builds on that scholarship, plus oral histories with managers and engineers deeply involved in the design and development of its computer systems since the 1970s. Fieldwork also benefited from a short survey of some 60 branch personnel in 2023.
As a result, the paper´s story provides an arc of the process of automation from its beginnings to present day. In particular, it offers new insights into the process of back-office automation through the innovative creation of a so-called “core banking” application in the early 1990s. This architecture was then redesigned in the late 2000s and early 2010s, to suit the “silo” or business unit needs of the parent company. The paper then reflects on the link between an erroneous automation strategy and the loss of market share in the mid to late 2010s.