López Obrador said that when Citi bought Banamex in 2001, taxes were not paid due to the influence among politicians and businessmen: “there was deceit,” he said.
The Tabasco politician defended his idea that the Government buy a bank or have a stake in it, since there would be savings in commission payments and because the federal budget is managed in commercial banking.
“Imagine that the budget is managed in a public bank, how much is the commission savings? It is the same as if you had money in any commercial bank,” he commented.
He said that he asked the Secretary of the Treasury, Rogelio Ramírez de la O, to speak with Citi to confirm that Banamex is worth 7,000 million dollars (mdd), and of which 2,000 million dollars would be for the payment of taxes: “It is already reduced to 5,000 million dollars, if the Government contributes, there are only 2,000 million dollars left for Mexican shareholders of all levels”.
López Obrador questioned why a government cannot have its own bank, when in other countries there is. He added that payments are also made to insurers.
“I do not rule out making the request to create a bank because we can meet the requirements. All operations are done by applications, the windows are no longer needed. All that the Federation Treasury charges is with applications. If they cannot be had The offices can have the system to receive or collect the funds. It is a matter of seeing the requirements and it could be achieved or the same Welfare Bank that had a digital platform, “said the Head of State.
López Obrador clarified that his comments do not mean that they intend to expropriate the banks.
During the past year, commercial banks had profits of 236,000 million pesos (mp), of which 20,433 million pesos were taken by Banamex, according to figures presented at the conference: “which would mean that the government has its accounts there,” he said. President.
