[ad_1]
Mexico's main stock index plunged nearly six percent Thursday after President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's party is billing slash the banks can charge customers.
Dragged down by banking stocks, the BMV index slid 6.18 percent after Majority Leader Ricardo Monreal introduced the bill, before recovering slightly to close down 5.81 percent.
The peso also weakened 1.2 percent against the dollar.
Monreal said the bill would eliminate "excessive" amounts that banks in Mexico charge for things including ATM withdrawals, late payments on credit cards, annual fees, inter-bank transfers and business use of credit card terminals.
"More than 30 percent of the Mexican banking sector's revenue from charging commissions," said the bill.
"The alarming and excessive abuse of banking fees to the detriment of Mexicans is even more evident when one reckons that these revenues increased by eight percent in 2017, to $ 108 billion," or $ 5.34 billion, it said.
It was the latest day of turbulence for the Mexican markets.
Stocks and the peso also plunged last week when Lopez Obrador announced he would halt construction on a new $ 13-billion airport for Mexico City.
The largest investor in the billionaire telecom project Carlos Slim, the richest person in Mexico and seventh-wealthiest in the world, according to Forbes magazine.
Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist, has worried the business with rhetoric about overhauling.
He has sought for the future of Latin America's second-largest economy by appointing a team of market-friendly economic advisers and promising to fiscally conservative government.
Some analysts, however, said the banking bill probably gave a hint of how he would manage the economy.
"This is the type of interventionist that will emerge in the coming weeks and months," said Eurasia Group in a note.
"Lopez Obrador generally distrusts banks and traditional financial institutions."
Given that Lopez Obrador's coalition holds a majority in both houses of Congress, the bill is likely to have a "significant impact" on banks' earnings, said Gabriela Siller, chief economist at BASE bank.
"Although the bill was not proposed by the president-elect, Monreal was the leader of his Morena party in the Senate, which argued that the next government could maintain an unfavorable relationship with the private sector," she said.
The bill would have the effect of "excessive" amounts that banks in Mexico charge for things including ATM withdrawals, late payments on credit cards, annual fees, inter-bank transfers and business use of credit card terminals
Source link
