Structured finance has provided Mexican borrowers with a reliable source of capital through a period of political and macroeconomic uncertainty
In an uncertain market, where Mexican lenders have grappled with new administrations both domestically and in the US, structured finance has served as a vital lever for unlocking liquidity.
Mexico’s mainstream banking and capital markets have had to operate in a complex environment and adjust to the election of Claudia Sheinbaum as Mexico’s new president in the summer of 2024 and a second Trump administration in the US.
Relations with the US, Mexico’s largest trading partner, have proven particularly challenging for the country’s banking system. In June 2025, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the US Department of the Treasury cut off three Mexican financial firms for alleged involvement in drug cartel money laundering, resulting in closures, asset break-ups and fire sales. Other banks have responded by ramping up controls and trimming client lists, which have occupied resource and management bandwidth. This regulatory uncertainty has also reduced visibility, making it difficult to price and underwrite risk on new lending.
Structured solutions
Against this challenging backdrop, structured finance—where lenders underwrite loans against assets rather than future cashflows—has been an attractive financing product for borrowers.
Mexico is one of the largest structured finance markets in Latin America, according to S&P analysis. Analysts expect it to be a key driver of future structured finance issuance in the region, which is forecast to grow from US$31.6 billion in 2024 to US$35 billion in 2025.
Mexican businesses in the automotive, lending and consumer credit sectors have all used structured finance. The product has also been a perfect fit for fast-growing fintech companies, which are rapidly expanding their revenues but have yet to establish a long track record of profitability.
Structured finance players have been able to deliver financing packages for fintechs without having to rely on historic trading numbers to underwrite their loans. Instead, they secure loans against the companies’ assets and receivables.
For example, Latin American app developer Rappi Mexico raised a MXN$1 billion (US$54.52 million) structured finance facility for its credit card business Tarjetas del Futuro, secured against credit card receivables, from Banorte, one of Mexico’s largest banks. Konfio, a Mexican fintech company that provides loans to small and medium-sized companies, agreed to a US$250 million secured facility from Goldman Sachs’s structured credit division and Victory Park Capital (VPC), a specialist structured finance lender focused on the Latin American market.
Other Mexican fintechs backed by VPC include Mexican digital bank Klar, which offers customers mobile payment functionality, buy-now-pay-later loans and credit cards that pay cash back on all transactions. VPC provided a US$100 million structured facility for the business. VPC also provided a US$100 million structured facility to Alloy Capital, a specialist alternative lender serving the Mexican market.
Financial inclusion
Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, the outlook for Mexico’s structured finance market is cautiously optimistic.
Although structured finance is not directly exposed to sudden shifts in borrower earnings performance caused by volatile markets, lenders in the space have not been entirely insulated from macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility. Lenders have taken a more cautious approach when deciding what pools of assets to secure loans against, and are taking more time to review the quality of these asset pools. But even when taking these risks into account, opportunities abound in the Mexican market and players are eager to lend.
Mexico’s interest rate dynamics are encouraging for both lenders and borrowers. In November 2025, the Bank of Mexico lowered its benchmark interest rate to 7.25%, the lowest level since May 2022. Inflation risk has not completely subsided, but lower base rates will make financing cheaper for borrowers. This, in turn, should support an increase in lending deal volumes for structured finance players.
Structured finance stakeholders will also be keeping a close eye on whether an innovative transaction led by the Mexican government to stabilize heavily indebted state-owned national oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) can be replicated to support other stressed and distressed borrowers.
In July 2025, the state completed a US$12 billion debt deal to support Pemex by using pre-capitalized securities, also known as P-Caps. These allow the issuer to raise capital without impacting its balance sheet or credit rating. This structure is not a pure-play structured finance deal, but does make use of structured finance techniques and highlights how structured finance can be adapted to support borrowers in a wider range of situations.
Meanwhile, market watchers expect the fintech space to remain a rich source of deal flow for structured finance lenders. Fintechs and neobanks have a crucial role to play in leveraging mobile phone technology to improve financial inclusion in Mexico, where estimates suggest around half of the population is unbanked.
A post-pandemic financial crisis saw several of Mexico’s so-called non-bank financial institutions, which unbanked consumers relied on, face restructuring and insolvency. This further dented financial services access across the country, with fintechs and neobanks stepping in to try and fill the gap.
As key providers of financing for fintech companies, structured finance lenders will have a crucial role to play in supporting financial inclusion.
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