Mexican Bank Plans Big Expansion
 Associated Press
| | Banamex plans to hire about 1,600 people and open about 230 bank branches and consumer finance offices this year. |
Mexico's second-largest banking group, Grupo Financiero Banamex, a unit of Citigroup Inc., plans to hire about 1,600 people and open about 230 bank branches and consumer finance offices this year, a top company executive said this week.
Citigroup continues to invest in high-growth markets such as Mexico and Central America, where it recently paid more than $1.5 billion to buy two financial groups. The moves came even as Citi comes under growing shareholder pressure to control expenses.
In April, Citigroup unveiled a restructuring plan that will eliminate about 17,000 jobs, mainly middle and back-office positions, and save the company about $1.7 billion this year. About 57 percent of the 17,000 job cuts will take place outside the U.S.
"We are Citigroup, and we directly share and participate in the institution's objectives as a whole. The tendency in that context has been productivity and rationalizing costs," said Enrique Zorrilla, chief executive of the group's banking unit, in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.
Banamex opened 137 branches and 126 consumer finance offices in 2006, ending the year with 1,509 branches, 394 consumer finance locations and a payroll of about 45,000 employees.
Mexico's banking industry - which is controlled by international financial groups like HSBC Holdings, Spain's Santander Central Hispano and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, as well as Citigroup - has enjoyed several years of strong growth thanks to an expanding economy and demand for credit by businesses and consumers. |
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