🔎 Bankgaps

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We once noted that Brazil is the banking capital of Latin America. Yet when it comes to the ratio between market size and banks, Mexico is the place to watch.

Latin America’s second-largest economy towers above its peers on gross domestic product per bank, with a staggering $60B of GDP managed per institution.

On paper, that looks like efficiency: fewer banks handling more of the economy. But scratch deeper, and it represents more than just “low bank density.” It points to a system that is both concentrated and at times downright exclusionary.

Now, low bank density doesn’t have to be inherently damaging. Consolidated banks can scale services, invest in technology, and stay profitable. But Mexico’s model leaves huge swathes of its population outside the system. Only 47% of adults have a bank account, compared to 74% in Chile and over 80% in Brazil.

Meanwhile, private credit is stuck at 31% of GDP, less than half the OECD average. That all points to big banks with narrow reach: lean on the surface, shallow underneath.

So what do Mexican banks do with their lending firepower?

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