Mexican neobank Hey Banco’s split from Banregio due for 2025
Mexican bank Banregio won’t fully separate from Hey Banco, the digital bank it launched in 2017, until December this year at the earliest as the journey down the long road to independence continues.
Hey Banco to split from Banregio by 2025
The separation was first announced in February 2020, with Hey Banco seeking operational autonomy to expand its digital retail banking services.
Hey Banco’s endeavour to operate as a standalone entity gained further traction in July 2023, when it landed a banking licence with the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) in Mexico.
The licence has enabled the digital bank to operate as a multiple banking institution independently from Banregio, leading it to reveal its plans to launch Hey X, a new investing app for US fractional shares which is still in development.
However, as any bank origin story will bear witness to, separations of this nature are never as straightforward as they appear on paper, and aside from the regulatory complexities incurred through the detachment, Hey Banco has also needed to consider the technical aspects of the move too.
Driving the division
The highs and lows of this journey were elements touched upon in comments made by Enrique Navarro, director of finance and planning at Hey Banco’s holding company, Banco Regional, to regional news outlet El CEO this month.
Navarro revealed that, since gaining its banking licence last year, Hey Banco has continued to pursue all the relevant statutory and operational approvals to execute the separation to perfection.
He told the outlet this month that the bank is currently engaged with the CNBV and Banco de México to gain varying levels of authorisation to provide services of public economic interest (SPEI) and to incorporate banking correspondents.
“In parallel we are doing all these permits, the most important is the start of operation, we hope that this whole process will take us practically the rest of the year and we can start separate operations at the end of December or beginning of 2025,” Navarro’s comments read.
In an earlier statement he gave to analysts during Banco Regional’s transcribed Q3 earnings call last year, Navarro described seeing the launch of Hey Banco’s operations as an independent entity as the group’s “main objective for the next 12 months”, an effort he claims is “already working”.
Banregio and Hey Banco did not respond to FinTech Futures‘ request for comment at this time.
