At the heart of progress: Banorte’s role in Mexico’s growth

Grupo Financiero Banorte has followed its own ambitious philosophy for over a century. At every moment, in every place and region of Mexico, in every generation, during the country’s significant changes, he helped people take advantage of opportunities and overcome complex situations in all areas of their lives. It is thanks to this character that we are today the strongest and most important Mexican financial group.

Our history is closely linked to that of Mexico. Every decision, every loan, every business supported and every funded project leaves a footprint that impacts families, businesses and entire communities. Because when they prosper, Mexico prospers, and so does Banorte.

We understand that hidden opportunities are always present and Banorte knows how to take advantage of them. It is therefore not surprising that our origin is located in the capital of the booming state of Nuevo León, in the north of the country, which stands out for its industrial vocation. We were created with the knowledge and ambition to meet the needs of Monterrey businesses that today are a symbol of entrepreneurial spirit, innovation and resilience. Already at that time, the customer was at the center of our emerging ambitions. On November 16, 1899, Banco Mercantil de Monterrey was founded, a local bank which, years later, would become a regional bank.

Our next predecessor, Banco Regional del Norte, was established almost half a century later in 1947. The two financial institutions merged in the 1980s to create Banco Mercantil del Norte, today known as Banorte, which, thanks to a strategy of investments, mergers and acquisitions, has achieved the diversification and strengthening of its banking platform with national coverage.

We have thus integrated activities that allow us today to offer the most diversified portfolio of financial services on the market: banking for individuals, businesses of all sizes and governments, but also international banking, insurance, fund management , brokerage and retirement savings, among others.

Banorte’s story is one of transformation and progress. We have evolved, modernized and adopted every innovation, always reinforcing our essence: customers at the center of everything we do. This vision has made us migrants of evolution: we adopt each technological transformation with agility and opportunity, which is why we are digital pioneers, offering financial products and services that meet the needs of each of our clients.

Become the best financial group
Focusing on the group’s recent stage of technological, cultural and commercial transformation means reiterating our founding principle, which is to place the customer at the center of everything we do.

In 2014, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the organization to identify areas of opportunity and define the path forward. The objective was ambitious: to become the best financial group for our customers, investors and employees.

The objective was ambitious, to become the best financial group for our customers, investors and employees.

In 2015, we launched the “Vision 2020 Strategic Plan”, setting ambitious five-year objectives in terms of profits, profitability and efficiency, but above all with the firm intention of making a difference in the customer experience. How did we achieve this? With talent, technology and innovation. Firstly, we have increased the physical and digital means for transactions, thus offering customers the possibility of accessing Banorte services in a branch, with the efficient and rapid assistance of an executive, or digitally – no matter anywhere and anytime.

Thanks to these efforts, we now have an infrastructure that allows us to have an omnichannel approach towards our customers, which translates into reinforced support and a closer relationship with all our users.

To deliver this unique experience and exceed our customers’ expectations, we had to take a collaborative approach, focusing on a continuous process of evolving from a physical operation to a modern digital business. We have enhanced our branches through digitalization, making them increasingly efficient and functional, while freeing up executive capabilities to deliver a more targeted and personalized experience to the customer, when needed.

As part of the digitalization efforts defined in our 20/20 vision, we have developed a central data repository to better understand our customers; we have strengthened customer experience through innovative techniques and customer data analysis, and built a layered, flexible, agile and responsive architecture to deliver an unparalleled digital experience to our customers.

Our analytics team uses machine learning and behavioral analysis to further personalize the services we provide, and we also use this analysis for fraud prevention using predictive modeling.

All these changes and their respective results have been achieved thanks to the work of cells, multidisciplinary and collaborative groups in which ideas come together and converge to generate projects that add value to the institution, employees, investors, company and, of course, our customers. This model continues until today and is a source of initiatives for the growth and consolidation of Grupo Financiero Banorte.

Banking in a digital world
In 2020, in the wake of the global pandemic, we reflected on the accelerated digital transformation that lockdown has brought about in society. The result was an ambitious strategy, the “Plan one, two, three”, set for the period 2021 to 2023. The vision was renewed: to be the best financial group for our customers, investors and employees, and a mission just as ambitious. has been redefined: positioning itself as the number one banking sector in a digital world, while maintaining its leadership in profitability and sustainability.

To achieve this, we relied on these three plans. The first of these aimed to offer a personalized and transparent digital experience, integrating the entire range of our products, reducing their processing time and improving the customer experience. We have developed and released a new version of the Banorte Mobile application for the benefit of all our customers.

Our second plan for this period was to modernize our technology infrastructure to not only drive hyper-personalization, but also to help us compete with challengers in the digital domain.

The third step in our strategy for this period was to launch a 100% digital bank, which we did in January 2024, with the launch of Bineo. With this model, we seek to share savings with our customers through rewards programs, points accumulation and commission benefits.

This way we remain more competitive than ever. Today, Banorte is a digital bank with branches. All these actions have earned us national and international recognition, which resulted in the awards for “Best Banking App”, “Best Digital Consumer Bank” and “Best Retail Bank” in Mexico awarded by World Finance.

Do something extraordinary
This year, 2024, we celebrate our 125th anniversary, commemorating our history of effort, hard work, innovation, citizenship and social commitment. We know that people expect extraordinary actions and services from us. The actions undertaken over the last 20 years have positioned us as the Mexican financial group in the heart of the country.

We adapt, react with agility and anticipate customer needs to put the “extra” into extraordinary projects.

But now is not the time to rest on our laurels. We are currently assimilating the accelerated changes that mark the new era. To this end, we continued our strategic plans, adding four, five and six compared to the previous period. These plans are an ongoing process for us, but they must, among other things: be the best experience on the market, provide the best personalized offer on the market and be the best commercial operation in the financial system.

In this way, we adapt, react with agility and anticipate customer needs to put the “more” into something extraordinary. With the renewal of our strategy, we will give dynamism and rhythm to everything we have built. We will focus on returning to our essence as a financial institution, but equipped with technological infrastructure, innovation, talent and cellular culture, multidisciplinary and collaborative teams focused on continuous improvement of processes and results , their ultimate goal being to provide the best customer experience.

Mexico is our home and we will stay here. Our commitment to the country is unwavering, we honor the past and our eyes are now on the future. Challenges await us and we are ready to meet them. Together, we will continue to do the ordinary in an extraordinary way! In Banorte, the next 125 years will once again be written hand in hand with Mexico.