Peña Nieto promulgates the Fintech Law

President Enrique Peña Nieto on Thursday promulgated the Law for the Regulation of Financial Technology Institutions (called fintech) at the opening ceremony of the 81th Banking Convention held in Acapulco.

With the presence of banking executives, regulators of the financial system and financial technology, Peña Nieto signed the law that was approved in Congress on March 1.

Mexico is positioned as the leading market in Latin America, adding 238 startups that offer financial services with the help of technology, according to the Fintech Radars, prepared by Finnovista. They are followed by Brazil (219), Colombia (124) and Chile (75).

In the following months, the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) will establish a secondary regulation for fintech that are dedicated to collective funding (crowdfunding) and electronic payment.

The authorities involved, among which are the CNBV, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Mexico, must comply with the periods established for issuing provisions on prevention and detection of financing of terrorism, security of customer information, confidentiality policies and virtual assets, among other topics.

Most of these provisions fall on the CNBV, such as the minimum capital requirements, the limits of resources that companies may maintain on behalf of their clients and the information on operations that companies must report to the authorities.

After several months of discussion in both chambers, the Fintech Law finally becomes a reality. According to the approved document, and in the opinion of several participants of this industry, it will bring benefits for the companies and for the users.

According to figures from a study conducted by Statista, the total value of transactions in this sector will be 36,439 million dollars by 2018.