Banamex & Citibank: Happy Together

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Given the anti-immigration/anti-Latino sentiment of the moment combined with the dire straits of Mexico's vast underclass, it's unsettling to see that for the upper stratas of American and Mexican Capital it's business as usual.

Evidence of it came in the mail today as an invitation for a VISA card.
Mind you, I get a lot of these annoying letters, perhaps a dozen a week. But today's letter caught my attention because it was from a bank with an unusual name: Banamex.

My immediate thought was why is a Mexican Bank soliciting me, a foreigner, as a customer? Shouldn't Mexican Banks instead be working on finding ways to provide access to low cost capital to the Mexican working classes and entrepreneurs?

I googled Banamex and learned that it's Mexico's largest online bank. However, the letter is actually from Banamex U.S.A. and that it's somehow related to Citibank. Citibank's name is in very small print and nowhere in the letter am I told anything about Banamex or its relationship to Citibank.

The letter is bilingual: English on one side, Spanish on the other. And it cheerfully promises that I can access funds 24 hours a day--and do so in my language.

So, U.S. and Mexican capital are literally wedded and producing offspring such as this Banamex, U.S.A.

Perhaps that's a good thing--we'll have to wait and see. But I can't help but be troubled by this invitation.

Here's why:

1) Just because a letter is written in Spanish won't get me to sign-up for high cost credit. I resent usury rates in any language.

2) I also wonder who's serving Mexico's hugely under capitalized workers and small businesses. Isn't part of Mexico's problem that it's nearly impossible for the broad working classes to access low cost capital for starting and growing micro and small businesses?

3) Finally, what do these sorts of transnational financial corporations mean for the working classes in the U.S. and Mexico? That is, will the further consolidation of these entities widen or restrict worker access to capital? Won't funneling high interest rate profits to the Citibank and its millionaire Mexican partners only aid the widening gap between rich and poor in the U.S. and Mexico?

Posted by USTaino at 2:51 PM