Noticias FinTech México
Femsa, Fintech and The Art of War: Strategic Refocus to Take Time
“He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight”, wrote Sun Tzu in The Art of War, a reminder that real victory often comes from restraint and timing rather than constant advance. Femsa is following this advice, restructuring its fintech unit Spin, as it has remained a drag on results, without meaningfully increasing store traffic. In summary, the company fired the ex-Nu Femsa FinTech head, is giving up (“postponing”) on a bank license, fully integrating FinTech within OXXO and thus cutting 20% of the Spin workforce, expected to do credit via a partner – all a big reset on FEMSA’s once ambitious fintech push (ironically masterminded by the current CEO in his previous roles).
The ups and downs in Femsa’s FinTech strategy reflect the classic incumbent’s dilemma. OXXO makes a huge amount of profit from turning cash payments in its stores to digital payments elsewhere (transfers, utility payments, etc.), earning a fat commission. Fully digital payments outside the stores threaten to slash margins on those offerings. Instead of competing with itself, as Spin as originally conceived was going to be doing, they are now going to navigate the transition to digital from within OXXO hoping to preserve margins and market share with a single P+L focus.
Now for the details. The company is replacing Spin’s CEO and CDMX-based and relative outsider Juan Carlos Guillermety, who had joined two and a half years ago after a four-year stint at Nubank, and who will now transition to an “advisory role”. The new fintech head is Monterrey-based company insider Rodrigo García Jacques, who has been at Femsa since 2012, most recently as Spin’s Chief Strategy Officer, and is coming in with an explicit mandate to tighten execution, maintain operating discipline, and—most importantly—keep Spin permanently aligned with OXXO Mexico. Reflecting that he will report into OXXO, and not the Group CEO.
He will no longer sit as a parallel growth bet, but as a tool embedded in the core retail engine: “one client, one strategy, and one aligned P&L”, as management framed the new Ecosystem 2.0. The company said some operations will be centralized within OXXO to improve efficiency and reduce costs, and he will report into OXXO, while ostensibly keeping Spin as a separate operating unit. As a result, it seems late last month Spin cut about 250 people, or ~20% of its workforce.
Spin already reduced its negative EBT by nearly 30% in 2025, and following these changes, management is guiding to a further ~20% improvement in 2026, with the combined restructuring expected to add roughly MXN 1 billion on an annualized basis, ramping through 2026 and reaching full impact in 2027 and beyond. It is also expected to shortly announce a partner in credit, forsaking going alone, and will no longer seek third party partners for its Premia loyalty program, which management said will no longer be offered outside the FEMSA ecosystem. In parallel, the company is narrowing or postponing other ambitions—such as certain payment-platform efforts in small mom-and-pop stores—until it has clearer line of sight on what will work inside the OXXO network.
The goal, however, goes beyond simply cutting costs and reducing losses. The company seeks a tighter integration between the wallet and OXXO’s vast physical presence, which it now recognizes as its key competitive advantage against purely digital players like Mercado Pago, Nubank, and Revolut. Spin is postponing its bank license application as it “clarifies the lending opportunity through the right partnership”: simply put, if it can leverage its footprint with someone else’s lending expertise (and balance sheet), foregoing a full banking license may be the rational choice. But it also underlines the stop-start nature of the plan—bank license ambition, then postponement—one of several ups and downs that have made the fintech strategy look less settled than the rest of FEMSA’s normally polished playbook.
The broader thesis is omnichannel: digital does not replace the store, it amplifies it, and the store is not a constraint on digital, it is its advantage. Management is effectively betting that payments, services, loyalty, and data should be embedded into the store experience—turning 25,000+ locations into the physical rails for a digital wallet. They even highlighted underused, very “retail-native” use cases—Spin QR for tipping, person-to-person transfers, and quick cash-in/cash-out through OXXO via a simple QR scan—along with a pipeline of services meant to replace legacy traffic drivers that gradually migrate online. At a time when OXXO faces weaker consumption and competition in fintech remains fierce, taking it slow and only fully entering the arena once it has confidence in its value proposition—and once the store network is doing more of the heavy lifting—seems like a sensible move.
That caution is also visible in capital allocation. FEMSA announced dividends for 2026 equivalent to P$41bn (P$15.2bn ordinary, +3.7%, and P$25.8bn extraordinary). It’s a fairly clear signal that FEMSA would rather return cash while it retools Spin, than keep plowing incremental capital into fintech—very different from Mercado Libre’s “all-in” posture in Mercado Pago in Mexico.
Femsa, 25/02/26, 4Q25 Earnings call | Other Sources: Bloomberg, 25/02/26, Amy Stillman and Maria Clara Cobo: Mexican Convenience Store Operator Looks to Revamp Fintech Unit Spin by Oxxo.
MercadoLibre Shares Slide on Profit Miss Despite Strong Revenue and Fintech Growth
Just as Femsa is pulling back, Mercado Pago is going all in, and the market for now is not liking it. MercadoLibre shares fell 8%, their worst session since November, after fourth-quarter net income of US$559 mn missed expectations, with Brazil in particular proving a drag on margins. (Mexico performed well.) While revenues maintained their impressive trajectory, rising 45% year-on-year, the miss was driven by heavy investments in free shipping, fulfillment, credit expansion, and AI capabilities. Management framed the strategy as long-term positioning in LatAm’s underpenetrated retail and financial markets, particularly Brazil and Mexico. All of these measures are clearly aimed at strengthening its competitive moat against Amazon, Shein, Nubank, and Revolut, but for now they were not quite welcome by the market.
Bloomberg, 24/02/26, Maria Clara Cobo and Leda Alvim: MercadoLibre shares slide as net income misses estimates on higher spending.
Nubank Q4 Profit Jumps 50% on Customer and Loan Growth – but Shares Slip
Brazil’s Nubank reported a 50% year-on-year increase in 4Q25 net profit to US$894.8 mn, driven by customer expansion, higher revenue per active user, and stable servicing costs, but the stock price also slid on a pre-teax earnings miss. Total revenue rose 45% to US$4.86 bn, while its customer base across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia grew 15% to 131 mn users. At the same time, the loan portfolio expanded 40% to US$32.7 bn, primarily in credit cards, with the over-90-day delinquency rate edging down to 6.6%. However, despite beating profit expectations, shares fell sharply as analysts flagged higher operating expenses and cost-of-risk concerns. Nubank also secured the first of three regulatory approvals to enter the US market, signaling its next phase of geographic expansion as it balances growth, credit quality, and profitability across markets. The company told analysts Mexican credit assets are growing 50y/y and funding costs are down 25% or so, materially boosting unit economics. Combined, credit growth, cheaper funding and scale should keep profitability trending higher in Mexico even with the big increase in OpEx driven by the banking license and some global related investment from Mexico.
Reuters, 25/02/26, Staff: Brazilian digital bank Nubank’s profit rises 50% in Q4 on customer growth.
Mexico Fintech Festival 2026: Confident Realism
Mexico Fintech Festival 2026 boasted a packed agenda that put practically all the main Mexico FinTech founders, investors and operators alongside hundreds and hundreds of journalists, spectators, government officials, competitors, bankers, suppliers, lawyers, wannabe FinTech bros and people with nothing better to do. The networking was impressive, and if the goal was to show that the Mexico Fintech industry was now large, includes some huge and impressive companies (Nu, Mercado Pago, Bitso., Stripe, Kapital, Kushki, Plata, Stori.), has grown up, blah blah the objective was achieved. And Fintechs bros throw better parties than the ABM.
A recurring theme was scale and maturity. Ecosystem voices highlighted that Mexico now counts more than 1,100 active fintechs and tens of billions of dollars in annual fintech‑processed transactions, arguing that the conversation has moved from “if” to “how”: how to reach profitability, how to consolidate, and how to plug into existing financial infrastructure. Within that, three forward‑looking axes kept coming up: AI agents, embedded finance and B2B‑focused models in payments, credit and infrastructure, presented as the next layer on top of an ecosystem that already has basic rails in place.
Based on self-promoting LinkedIn posts, what many felt set this edition apart was the quality of the interactions: “real conversations, real opportunities, and real connections,” rather than pure branding exercises, we were told. Side events, from failure‑themed talks and intimate investor–founder meetups to more informal networking formats, apparently reinforced the sense of a more self‑aware ecosystem, willing to talk openly about mistakes, regulation bottlenecks and consolidation pressures.
From the outside it looked much like any conference, except bigger, more impressive speakers and more free food and drink than is normally the case. (Kudos to the organizers for that). In other words, there were people talking shop to audiences of various sizes, maybe half of whom were paying attention, and maybe half on their phones. And people outside the auditoriums chatting to friends and catching up (and perhaps hatching deals), doing unrelated ZOOM calls, having fun, far outnumbered those studiously listening to the talks.
Citi Sells Another 24% Stake in Banamex Ahead of IPO
Citigroup agreed to sell a 24% stake in Banamex for US$2.5 bn to investors including General Atlantic, Banco BTG Pactual, Blackstone funds, Liberty Strategic Capital, and the Qatar Investment Authority, as part of its plan to fully exit Mexican retail banking. The move follows last year’s 25% sale to Mexican investor Fernando Chico Pardo and advances Citi’s strategy to divest non-core assets. The transaction, subject to Mexican regulatory approval, values Banamex at about 0.85x book value; the new investor roster offers some clues about the ongoing transformation of the bank, with implications for competition, foreign investment, and capital markets depth in the country’s financial ecosystem.
Financial Times, 23/02/26, Akila Quinio: Citi to sell another stake in Mexico’s Banamex ahead of IPO.
Cicada Raises $13.5m to Expand Electronic Trading in Mexican Bond Market
Cicada, a US-regulated electronic trading platform for Latin American local-currency debt, has raised $13.5m in a Series A funding round led by Citi, with participation from B3 (via its venture arm L4), Kaszek, Dila and Crestone. The financing includes a parallel strategic equity programme aimed at anchoring liquidity by bringing market makers onto the platform. Cicada operates an SEC-registered alternative trading system (ATS) and runs an all-to-all marketplace linking global buy-side and sell-side institutions. It is targeting Mexico’s local-currency fixed-income market, which it estimates at about $500bn, where more than 98% of $5bn–$7bn of daily trading is still done by voice. The company said proceeds would fund expansion into new products and markets, deeper third-party integrations, and development of an electronic venue for Mexican TIIE interest-rate swaps.
Fintec Buzz, 26/02/26: Cicada Raises US$13.5 Million Series A.
CNBV Pushes “Fintech Law 2.0” as Banxico Highlights Sector’s Growing Role in Payments
Signaling a new phase for Mexico’s fintech landscape, CNBV’s potential “Fintech Law 2.0” seeks to update the 2018 Fintech Law, allowing for deeper fintech integration with the Mexican payments system, new business models, and systematic relevance. Announced by CNBV President Ángel Cabrera at Fintech Festival 2026, the goal is not to replicate traditional banking in mobile form, but to expand inclusion through digitally native institutions. Banxico highlighted that fintechs are increasingly embedded in the payments system, originating 18% of SPEI transactions, processed over 6 billion transfers 2025 (totaling more than MXN 600 tn). Additionally, with over 1,000 fintechs and 70 million users in Mexico, updating the law will be significant in shapinglicensing, oversight, competition, and innovation rules at a time when fintechs are increasingly central players in Mexico’s financial infrastructure.
El Economista, 27/02/26, Sebastián Estrada: CNBV’s ‘Law 2.0’.
Lectura adicional...
- Neobanks Kapital and Plata now aim to go public on the Stock Market.
- Fintech Konfío will allocate $2.5 billion USD for the growth and financing of SMEs in Mexico.
- Klar accerates growth and prepares for IPO amid Mexican fintech fever.
- Fintech Fiduz secures registration as a regulated Investment Advisor in Mexico and prepares to launch operations.
- Mexican fintech ecosystem grows 79% in 5 years, entering consolodation phase: Finnovista.
- The ‘Spotify’ moment of Mexico’s Open Banking.
- Virgin Group evaluates entry into Mexican fintech business.
- Moonflow partners with Puntored to expand AI-powered collections in Mexico.
- Who is the man that will lead Banamex, one of the most important institutions in Mexico?
Noticias de LatAm FinTech
99Pay Raises US$135M via FIDC to Expand Credit Operations in Brazil
Brazilian fintech 99Pay, the financial arm of mobility platform 99, raised US$135 mn through a new FIDC structure to strengthen its lending operations. The move marks the company’s third such vehicle since launching credit in late 2022. Coordinated by Bradesco BBI, the funding supports a business that has already originated US$1.16 bn in loans, with an active portfolio of about US$350 mn. Operating under Central Bank licenses as a Direct Credit Society (SCD) and Payment Institution (IP), 99Pay serves more than 26 mn clients and positions credit as a core growth pillar within Didi’s Brazilian ecosystem. The transaction highlights how mobility platforms are leveraging large user bases and structured credit funds to scale regulated digital lending in LatAm’s most competitive fintech market.
Latam Fintech Hub, 23/02/26, Let’s Money: Fintech 99Pay raises US$ 135 million via FIDC to strengthen its credit operation in Brazil.
Tether Freezes US$4.2bn in USDT Linked to Criminal Activity
El Salvador-based stablecoin issuer Tether said it has frozen US$4.2 bn worth of USDT tied to illicit activity. Tether has more than US$180 bn of its dollar-pegged tokens in circulation and since 2023, US$3.5 bn has been blocked due to global authorities intensifying scrutiny of crypto-related crime. Recent actions include assisting the US Department of Justice in freezing nearly US$61 mn linked to “pig-butchering” fraud schemes. Tether has also restricted wallets connected to human trafficking, sanctioned entities, and conflict-related financing. The announcement comes at a time when stablecoins are strengthening their position within global crypto markets, highlighting issuers as increasingly important enforcement gatekeepers amid rising concerns over money laundering and regulatory gaps in digital asset markets.
Reuters, 27/02/26, Elizabeth Howcroft: Tether says it has frozen $4.2 billion of its stablecoin over crime links.
Lectura adicional...
- Jeeves launches stablecoin-backed corporate card for LatAm companies and enables instant payments in 191 countries.
- Addi, Colombian digital credit fintech, secures US$89M in financing to expand its credit alternatives.
- Fintech Prometeo and Fiskil announce alliance to strengthen implementation of Open Finance in Colombia.
- Kushki solidifies leadership in Chile with 105% growth in 2025.
- Fintech Sempli launches vehicle credit line and expands portfolio into Colombia.
Noticias mundiales sobre tecnología financiera
Stripe Signals Interest in PayPal Amid Payments Industry Shake-Up
Stripe has expressed preliminary interest in acquiring all or parts of PayPal, according to sources, though discussions remain early and may not lead to a transaction. The move comes as PayPal, now valued at US$43.3 bn after years of stock underperformance, faces mounting pressure to modernize amid competition from Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other digital wallets. Slowing payment volumes and recent leadership changes add to the mix. Stripe, on the other hand, has emerged as one of the most powerful private players in global payments, recently valued at US$159 bn in an employee tender offer. A potential deal would mark a significant consolidation in the fintech sector. It reflects intensifying competition, scale advantages, and the strategic race to control merchant infrastructure and digital wallet ecosystems worldwide.
Bloomberg, 24/02/26, Ryan Gould, Matthew Monks, Dinesh Nair and Emily Mason: Stripe considers acquisition of all or parts of PayPal.
Block Cuts 4,000 Jobs in AI-Driven Restructuring
Block will cut 4,000 employees, nearly half its workforce, as CEO Jack Dorsey positions AI as central to future productivity and cost efficiency. The fintech, which operates Cash App and Square across payments, lending, and merchant services, has been restructuring since 2024 amid stock underperformance and rising competitive pressure. It has invested heavily in proprietary AI tools such as “Goose” to automate operations, arguing that many companies will need similar structural changes. Shares jumped as much as 21% after the announcement, even as analysts questioned whether AI is driving genuine transformation or serving as cover for cost cuts. The move reflects broader fintech and Big Tech trends, where AI adoption is reshaping workforce models and payments infrastructure, with implications for digital finance players globally, including in LatAm markets where Block’s merchant and remittance services compete with local fintechs.
Bloomberg, 26/02/26, Emily Mason: Jack Dorsey’s Block slashes nearly half of workforce in AI bet.
Morgan Stanley Seeks US Trust Bank Charter to Expand Crypto Custody
Morgan Stanley has applied for a de novo national trust bank charter with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, to custody digital assets and expand its trading and staking services for investment clients nationwide. The move deepens the bank’s push into crypto, following ETF filings tied to Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana, partnering with Zerohash to enable digital asset trading for E*Trade clients, and appointing a head of digital-asset strategy. The application comes as Wall Street firms accelerate efforts to formalize crypto operations under federal oversight. Meanwhile, the regulatory climate remains favorable, highlighting growing convergence between traditional finance and digital assets.
Bloomberg, 27/02/26, Yizhu Wang: Morgan Stanley Applies for Bank Charter to Custody Crypto Assets.
Crypto.com Secures Conditional Approval for US National Trust Bank Charter
Singapore-based exchange Crypto.com received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter, advancing its plan to operate as a federally regulated entity. Having first applied in October 2025, Crypto.com will operate under the name Foris Dax National Trust Bank and function under direct OCC supervision, once fully approved.
The move is a clear signal of the exchange strengthening its regulatory positioning in the US. The approval, however, does not affect its existing Crypto.com Custody Trust Company, which operates as a qualified custodian in New Hampshire. It also reflects a broader push by crypto firms to obtain national trust charters to achieve institutional legitimacy, enhanced compliance oversight, and deeper integration into the US financial system.
FinTech Futures, 25/02/26, Francis Bignell: Crypto.com lands conditional approval for US bank charter
Lectura adicional...
- Revolut to test stablecoin in UK trial.
- Plaid Reaches $8 Billion Valuation in New Funding Round.
- US banks enjoyed record profits of $300bn in 2025
- Ericsson and Mastercard partner to accelerate global digital money movement and financial inclusion.
Descargar PDF: Mexico Fintech Chatter – 02.03.2026