Banco Internacional, S.A. was established as a commercial banking operation in Mexico City on 20 August 1941. In December 1980 it merged with 11 other long-established Mexican banks, the oldest of which, Banco de Coahuila, had begun life in 1933. The united bank, under the name of Banco Internacional and later Grupo Financiero Bital S.A. de C.V., developed nationwide banking, bonding and brokerage operations.
HSBC was looking to increase its footprint in emerging markets at the start of the millennium. It made a bid for Bital in the summer of 2002. By this time Bital had grown the largest retail banking network in Mexico, with nearly 1,400 branches serving six million customers. HSBC’s USD1.14 billion cash bid was accepted and the deal took place at the end of November that year. Bital became HSBC Mexico on the completion of a major rebranding programme in January 2004. Today HSBC México, S.A., the principal operating company of Grupo Financiero HSBC, S.A. de C.V., is one of Mexico’s four largest banking and financial service companies.
Further reading: ‘The Lion Wakes, A Modern History of HSBC’ by Richard Roberts and David Kynaston (Profile Books, 2015).
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