🔐Asset Managers

Welcome to Latinometrics. We bring you Latin American insights and trends through concise, thought-provoking data visualizations.

Over the last few years, retail investors — a term used to describe everyday citizens who invest their own money — have come to the forefront of Mexico's financial industry. In 2020, less than 2% of the country's economically active population had an investment account; by 2023, that percentage reached 13%, or 8M accounts.

But who are the stewards of this booming industry? Today, 29 regulated investment funds operate in the country and, combined, they manage and invest about $211B in assets.

Who are the top dogs?

BBVA and BlackRock alone account for 43% of that money. As we've reported, most of it goes directly towards Mexico's favorite investment mechanism: Cetes. These are government-issued bonds that offer, as of late, a 9.5% yearly return.

This financial instrument remains the favorite of all 29 funds, with two exceptions. GBM and Inbursa hold more assets in equities (usually stocks) than in bonds. These funds market themselves as easy doorways into public-company markets for Mexicans. GBM is largely responsible for the aforementioned explosion of retail investors; the firm held 5.5M accounts in January of this year.

But as you can imagine, not every account is built the same. Beyond the absolute value of each fund, we can look at the average client size. While GBM is all about the volume of clients, a much lesser-known US-originating firm with merely 443 clients, Franklin Templeton, represents some big fish in Mexico.

With $3.1M, Franklin Templeton’s average client size is over 3 times larger than the next largest, Compass.

While we pride ourselves on making our charts informative, in this case it's important to note what this chart doesn't tell us. This data by Asociación Mexicana de Instituciones Bursátiles (AMIB), while great, doesn't include Mexicans' assets managed by foreign institutions.

Firms like JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs often manage much larger accounts for high-net-worth and institutional clients.

As the appetite for investment continues to grow, keeping track of the results and wealth that this creates will be crucial. It's one thing to invest, it’s another to do so wisely and thus grow prosperity.

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