Despite the international financial troubles and its shrinking economy, Mexico's banking sector presents a relatively stable and optimistic picture. Assets in its top five banks grew on average by 50% in 2008, and although profitability has significantly declined these banks all closed the last financial year in profit.
Banks' capital grew at double-digit rates for the fifth year running, as did assets. The solidity of the Mexican banking system has been attributed to the measures put in place to cope with the country's financial and economic troubles of the mid-1990s. The consequences of the so-called 'Tequila Crisis', which originated in Mexico and spread to other Latin American countries, devaluing local currencies, forced the central bank to curb bank borrowing in dollars and to focus on banks' capitalisation.
