Incomplete and with uncertainty: this is how Banxico begins 2023

“This creates uncertainty as to why the president has not named someone, if it depends on the resolution of something else or what is happening. There are candidates, and several, with sufficient credentials to be able to be there”, commented Gabriela Siller, director of financial economic analysis at Banco Base.

Janneth Quiroz, deputy director of analysis at Monex Casa de Bolsa, considered it likely that it would take more weeks for the new deputy governor to be known, since the next monetary policy meeting will be until February 9, in addition to the fact that the appointment must be approved. of the Senate.

“The Governing Board is made up of five members, not four, so this is not a normal situation,” added Siller.

With the departure of Esquivel, the Banxico Governing Board is made up of Victoria Rodríguez as governor and the deputy governors Irene Espinosa, Galia Borja and Jonathan Heath.

Quiroz Zamora pointed out that in terms of monetary policy there will be no major effects, because the Governing Board will continue to operate, although he considered it probable that the workload in the teams will increase or that some decisions that corresponded to Esquivel will be postponed.

Article 45 of the Banxico Law states that the meetings of the Governing Board can be called by the governor or at least two deputy governors, and those who preside over them will have the casting vote in the event of a tie. Meetings are valid if at least three of its members are present.

Monex’s deputy director of analysis highlighted the mechanisms that the central bank has to operate in the event that some of its leaders are absent, as happened in 2007 and 2017, when decisions in the institution were made by four members of its Board without loss of efficiency and operability.

“Banco de México is one of the strongest institutions in the country and institutional mechanisms have been created through which it will operate in case there are some absences or an incomplete Governing Board,” he said.

On December 20, that is, 11 days before the position became vacant, President López Obrador said in his usual morning conference that there was already a proposal from the Treasury Secretariat to relieve Esquivel, however he refused to comment further. about.

The now former deputy governor and who belongs to the National System of Investigators (SNI) level III recently said that in 2023 will fully resume its academic activities at UNAM and at the Colegio de México (Colmex), work that he has carried out for more than 30 years.

Among the names that sound to join the Banxico Board are Gabriel Yorio, Undersecretary of Finance; Juan Pablo de Botton, current undersecretary of Expenditures of the same unit; Lucía Buenrostro, Vice President of Regulatory Policy at the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV); and Jorge Mendoza Sánchez, current head of the National Bank of Public Works and Services (Banobras).