Thank you very much and welcome. Thank you everyone, and thank you Patricia and Luisa for the invitation. It's a real pleasure to be here with all of you. I'm going to cover three topics in my presentation. First, the macroeconomic environment for Mexico, what opportunities there are, and how we can translate those opportunities into more growth for BBVA. Secondly, our competitive position in the country, and especially, I'll talk a little bit about fintechs or neobanks, because that's a question we always get in meetings with investors. The third part, I will explain a little about the whole transformation the bank has experienced in the last years, I would say in the last 10, 15 years, which are behind part of the competitive advantage we have today.
Let me start with the macro environment, and especially with our focus on opportunities BBVA has to keep growing in the country. We expect 2026 to be much more attractive than 2025. We've already adjusted our guidance for GDP growth this year to 1.8%, and basically last year, there was a drop in public and private investment. That was why it was 0.8% last year. Looking at the fall in investment, the current trends are a lot more positive because the drivers for growth have basically been foreign direct investment and exports, especially during the first semester of the year. The closing was quite good also in terms of consumption levels in the last months of the year and beginning of 2026. So we are probably going to revise that forecast upwards.
There has been a growth in private investment in general, but also an increase in public investment and job creation, which for BBVA is a very important factor, as I will describe a bit later. Investment converging to pretty stable levels, and interest rates continue to fall. So looking forward, the macroeconomic outlook is much more positive than it was for 2025. I have to say that in 2025, fiscal consolidation, so the reduction in the public deficit of the federal government, has had quite a big impact, and it's currently at quite sustainable levels for the next few years. I'm going to touch upon a series of aspects that we've discussed at different times with respect to opportunities in Mexico in general. I'll speak about lending penetration, which is still very low levels in the country at around 35%.
It should be around 70% if we compare it with comparable countries. This low penetration is due to several factors, but I'll mention just four. First, the deleveraging of the economy starting in 1994 when the company and the banks defaulted and a lot of companies did as well. Leveraging crashed and started to rise slightly, but we're still not back to where it was in 1994. First, the underground economy and the use of cash in the country. 55% of jobs in Mexico are in the informal sector. It's 25% of the GDP, and that means extremely low productivity in the economy, basically, in SMEs. I'll talk about the structure of SMEs in Mexico, which are tiny. Also the absence of investment in infrastructures, logistics, airports, ports, energy. In the last seven years, there's been very little investment in those areas.
But if we look at the last 12 or 15 years, investment in those sectors were pretty low as well. There has been no funding for those projects in the country. The fourth reason is because the debt market is quite deep. The debt market, both the local and the international. The large corporates, the banks and the government have a lot of market debt, and that also means deleveraged balance sheets. But if we look at BBVA, our balance sheet in BBVA México versus GDP, just five, six years ago, it was 4.8%, and now we are at about 5.7% of loans over GDP. This banking penetration process has benefited mostly BBVA, as you will see in more detail in figures of the next slides. We have spoken a lot about the opportunities for greater access to banking in the country.
I will give you some numbers to show the size of the opportunity and how it has changed over the years. 63% of people in Mexico already have an account which they are using, but one out of every three adults with an account have that account with BBVA, so active accounts with transactions today. If you look at the trend since 2018, BBVA has almost doubled this percentage of the accounts with us. That is the first choice when we look at surveys, when you ask adults where they want to have a bank account, they answer BBVA. If we look at loans to adults by banks, it was 31% in 2018, 37% in 2024. The biggest increase was also for BBVA with 13% of the total. Let me talk about SMEs, which is one of the biggest opportunity areas and where we are also pretty well-positioned.
We have 5.2 million SMEs in the country. Only 1.6 million have bank accounts, and that is because of the desire to not have their transactions be traceable. Of those 1.6 million that have bank accounts, 60% have a bank account with BBVA, so their transactions are with us. Of that 1.6 million, 340,000 have loans, and of those, 40% have their loan with BBVA. So really the best positioned bank to continue to increase banking penetration in the country is BBVA, and we also have a very solid structure for support to this segment. I should also refer to the demographics in the country, where over 52% of the population is under 35, which means new households being formed, more financial inclusion, and all of that, again, means growth for the banking sector.
As Jaime was talking about the great opportunities in the Plan México, which was launched at the beginning of this administration, it is no longer just a plan or a good diagnosis, it is now becoming a reality in terms of actions being executed. I will talk about four opportunities, basically. The infrastructure plan, if you remember, that is one of the most relevant in terms of access to banking. Because there is now a bottleneck in terms of the logistics in the country because of the growth in exports, too. A few weeks ago, the President announced a very robust plan with over 1,000 projects within it, and those 1,000 projects are not projects of this administration alone. These are projects that have been on the table for maybe 6- 10 years, and with a lot of players from the private sector with projects practically ready to go.
54% have to do with energy. Energy is, of course, an essential requirement to attract more investment into the country. We have spoken for a really long time about the importance of having low-cost energy, sustainable and available in growth areas in the country. There are basically projects for industrial hubs in the country which now basically lack access to the grid. There is lots of interest by many players in the market to get involved in combined cycle plant projects, sustainable energy projects, and so on. There is a good number of projects also to do with roadworks. There are many players that are already operating in the country involved in these projects. This year, we will probably see a lot of these projects get awarded and start to get funding. The plan is leveraged in private funding.
Even though it is a left-wing government, because of the need to reduce the public deficit, they are going for mixed or joint investment structures. Some of them were used already during the López Obrador administration. It is a plan which for this year will represent [1.4%] of GDP for infrastructures. During the rest of the six-year period, the amounts will be much larger. The total impact, I think, will be more visible in the second semester. BBVA is very well-positioned because most of the sponsors already work with us. The second pillar of the Plan México is the SME development.
The banking commission signed an agreement with the administration in 2025 to move SMEs and a set of discussions where we discuss why SMEs like funding in Mexico, why they do not use the banking system. It is not just about lending more, it is about dealing with the issues SMEs have to face with a powerful digitalization process, regulation changes to enable account opening, and changes in development banking so that private entities can play a more active role along with development bank. It is a project going in strong. Next week, we will meet at the banking committee for 2026 with specific results. The change has been from 21% to 24% of those SMEs that already work with a bank.
Along with the SME project, there is a very aggressive federal administration plan to fight the use of cash only that will get companies, or SMEs, to start using banks to support SME growth. The plan includes the 15 regional elements. Out of those, seven have short-term viability. We are working along with the federal administration, some pending for infrastructure like power, gas, and [digital wallet]. Then a super robust digitalization plan when our president launched a very important city digitalization plan to facilitate payments and collections for services in cash, as well as a digitalization of the entire transportation system. We want to do exactly the same, or roll out the same plan at a national level. This will cause a greater use of banking systems across the country. Then, of course, more product sales for banks.
The other aspect on the table is the FTA. Well, clearly, Mexico is the top commercial partner of the U.S., both in imports and exports. We're the top trading partner for the United States. The import share of Mexico to the U.S. were the sole country with a constant growth line. The U.S. import tariffs imposed to the rest of the world, well, there has been an important change, or these have caused an important change in the way Mexico exports. 81% of our exports are part of the FTA and therefore tariff-free. This is no minor matter, because about a year ago, 30%- 50% of exports, depending on the industry, were not included in the free trade agreement. They were off FTA to bypass the export documentation, but then they paid a 5% tariff.
Now these are being brought into the export rules within the FTA and are now tariff- free. We can expect the FTA to be renegotiated to further integrate Mexican and U.S. economies. Last week, the start of negotiations for the bilateral review of the FTA with U.S., and the week after that, we will start the renegotiation of the free trade agreement with Canada as well. Beyond the competitive advantage in terms of labor costs and logistics costs, there's also a highly integrated economic structure in Mexico that will continue to be Mexico's competitive advantage in the future. In terms of direct foreign investment, it grew 10% in 2025, and here are the investment growth data in the past five years. We're reaching $40 billion in the invested country. Mexico should get twice the investment when compared with other Latin American countries, particularly Brazil.
At the bottom, we have the total weight of foreign investment in the country. The figure is always around 10%. In 2025, it shifted to 22% due to the drop of local private investment. The minute domestic investment recovers, we can expect a clear difference upwards of the GDP. Despite the intense tariff debate, the level of new industrial plant investment maintains the same pace as in recent years. There are practically no further construction without investors. Most construction is based on already agreed contracts. Some areas are fully saturated in terms of use. Actually, there is a deficit in terms of industrial areas, sometimes due to the lack of power in the regions, and sometimes due to the paralyzation of construction. But the power reform undertaken by President AMLO has brought power to many areas that were lacking in energy. Recent investment in Mexico.
Many companies investing in Mexico right now, foreign companies have already set foot in the country. They know the rules, they know the environment, and they're just growing their production capabilities in Mexico. I would say these are the big opportunities out there in Mexico. That's the perspective for the next few years, and Mexico is well-placed to address that environment. Let me talk about the competitive environment we're facing. I will show you how we're gaining share in different businesses. First of all, in the past five years or so, since 2018, right before we noticed the effect of the world pandemic, we launched highly transformative plans for segmentation and projects. Since then, BBVA México has grown its market share by 300 basis points. All of our competitors are in the list, and whenever we have data, we're also entering the performance of neobanks.
On the lending mix, we see that we are the fastest-growing competitor in this environment. Neobanks are hardly present in the total market share. Most of all, the interesting thing is the share we are reaching, and that is because of our bank deposits mix. 55% is retail and 45% is wholesale. We have a highly diversified lending mix, not only in terms of segments, products, and geographies, but also we are heavy on retail, so we have very good capability to generate income and profit. On the side of bank deposits, we are growing to the tune of 215 basis points since 2018, and practically all major banks, part of the G7, are actually shrinking in new deposits. Those new deposits are going to small regional banks, new entrants like neobanks and the like. BBVA keeps maintaining the growth in its bank deposits balance.
There are two challenges here. Keeping the cost of deposits low and continuing to fund the important growth we are having in terms of lending. The truth is, this deposit management is highly related to price. We have the capacity to attract enough liquidity to fund the whole growth of the asset. The challenge is doing it in a super efficient manner. Still on the same slide, the deposits mix compares very well to the rest of the system. We hold 85% of our deposits are demand deposits, and nearly 56% of those comes from individuals in private banking, therefore zero cost. The system holds 72%, but a large part of it is remunerated term deposits. We have high transactionality with our clients, connections to payroll management, transactional business, but we only remunerate in CIB and government. More on that later.
If we break down our share by wholesale and retail businesses, you see the same performance from 2018 until now. We stand number one in all products except personal loans and retail. Here are two points of data on the slide. We have the growth in basis points for each product and the position of the following player far behind. Just to give you an example, in SMEs, we hold 32.7% of the market since 2018. That is when we restructured the whole business, and since then, we have grown 1,061 basis points. The next player is following very far behind. He is about one-third of our size. They hold 13% of the share. The same thing for large enterprises, 21.3% growing to 115 basis points, developers, 25%, growth, 350 basis points. Public sector. This does not include Pemex or CFE, the major companies.
In acquiring business, we hold 38% of market share, and I do not have the comparative for growth because after a certain window, we have no data earlier than 2022. On the retail side, we have a similar landscape. Our share well above our next competitor, 31.4% in credit cards, growing by 258 basis points. I will deliver a summary on credit cards because we are getting a hard competition from neobanks. In payroll loans, we are reaching 40.6% market share and growing by 671 basis points versus 2018. In personal loans, although we run second in this race, we still have 26% of market share. This is linked to stores for low segments, and many of the personal loans from these stores are booking inside the bank. In mortgages, we grew by 91 basis points in the past five years.
Auto loans is the sole product where we are going down, - 1,242 basis points, which is a strategy for product profitization. We are top in auto loans, second in sales, following only Nissan, but the level of competition is very tight. We re-steered our wallet or our portfolio and gave priority to profit versus quality. In bancassurance, we hold 32% of the market share, 32.3%, growing by 333 basis points in the past few years. We are not number one in terms of issuing policies, but we are number one in profitability. We are the most profitable insurance business in the entire industry. How did we get here?
When you look at this slide in terms of growth and market share, you may wonder, how can this happen in this super competitive environment, local banks, regional banks, global banks, plus new entrants, fintechs, local neobanks permanently going into the market? How do we achieve this? There are several reasons. First of all, a hyper-focused product strategy. We have one strategy per product for share growth, and also a resegmentation of the whole business, which started in 2013, 2015, six, seven years ago. In SMEs, for instance, we reconceived the entire business in 2018. Here I have some examples for you on the strategies we followed to achieve these share growth. I will tell you about credit card and payroll credit.
We have been working hard since 2016 to truly offer one-click digital solutions as part of our software and as part of the app and part of ATMs. Plenty of our products can be contracted via the app now. Last year, we issued 2.7 million new credit cards. Card for a client in BBVA. Out of those 22% of cards are open market. Clients that did not have an account with us, did not even have a credit card in the system, which is a way to build capacity to compete against neobanks, where the control level of the risk premium, that approach is excellence. We also enhanced our pre-approved credit offers for new BBVA clients coming from our own transactionality and external data, which caused an improvement in pre-approved credit offers and in different channels, but particularly usability, loyalty programs, so we are a fast-growing bank in [inaudible].
The same strategy brought to the retail business, where this kind of strategy is not as easy to do. Jaime was talking about the segmentation we did in the commercial business. If we are talking about enterprise banking, we have approximately 15,000, 16,000 enterprise groups in Mexico. More if you consider subsidiaries. If we segment them into four tiers, before you sub-segment, most executives focus on the largest clients, and there is always a segment at the bottom of the portfolio that they rarely pay attention to. When we do the segmentation and we rank them by type of client, we realize the opportunities we have out there because you are a lot more granular than you used to be. If we go to the lowest enterprise segment, the one right above SMEs, which is the one Jaime was describing.
Only last year, in terms of loan penetration, last year, we grew by 21.8%. That is 480 basis points. If we look at the same number three years ago, we held only 10% penetration. If you look how segments progress from micro SME to CIB, and you see the penetration level, you would expect the behavior to be more or less even throughout from a sub-segment to the next. But the thing in SMEs is that there was a drop in penetration because our product offering and distribution offering was not so good. We did not have the right incentives, and we had processes that did not necessarily meet the number of clients we were serving.
If we look at corporate plans in CIB, we grew our loans market share by 190 basis points with a share of 21.8%, but we also clustered specific clients, particularly in the GTB transactional world, which allowed us to identify large cross-selling opportunities for product sales. You heard it from Jaime, we specialize by type of industry, real estate, agro, and institutions. When we separate real estate from the portfolio, or when you separate an industry where you are particularly strong and where you have a high level of client penetration, if you separate that, you get to see the clients you are not serving, and that is how we have focused on loan business penetration. I would say the best example of refocusing a specific strategy and using our new phase is what we have done with SMEs. In 2018, we were leaders in the market.
We held 23% market share, and we decided there was a huge opportunity in the SME business back then. At that moment, the SME business was part of the retail network. Regional head could see all the retail subsidiaries or branches and also the SME business, which is entirely different in terms of products and management. We decided to separate that and create a specific SME network. At the same time, we reconsidered the whole distribution strategy, the commercial offering we were making, the entire loan process, and we redesigned our whole collaterals process for development banking. We launched this reorganization in 2019, and we went from 23% to 33%, the sole bank growing sustainably. 11% growth in terms of loans in the past few years. During the 2020 world pandemic, we launched the Neighborhood Banking.
We used our branch executives, not from the SME business, but from physical branches, to do this process for small businesses. This is like going to super traditional banks from 60 years ago. We found an enormous opportunity for business with over 530,000 new clients into the bank. We just offer a transactional account to these individuals so that they can have a card for their employees, and we started granting loans based on what we detected in POS. A highly focused strategy. Today, BBVA is not just the fastest-growing bank, but the main user of collaterals in the country. There are guarantee funds in Mexico, and BBVA gets 90% of the available guarantees from these plans.
We do not take a higher percentage because there is a cap in development banking, but it is still a huge opportunity when we look at the digitalization SME project we are launching with the federal government along with the Mexican Banking Association . Another aspect explaining our growth and share is our super granular strategy. In 2018, we see the state-by-state breakdown. There are 32 states in the Mexican Republic. Let us take a look at our share of products where we were leader. Well, in navy, we were leaders in over four products in 2018. At the time, we were measuring seven products. If you had four, you were slightly over 50% of product that made you leader in the market. Only seven years later, look how the map has become almost entirely dark blue. Maybe by next year it will be fully covered.
In many areas of the country, out of the seven products we offer, we are leaders in six of them. We were not leaders in auto because there is always the Nissan business. Thanks to this, we have a highly focused strategy per state, per region, to focus on who our main competitors are, because our main competitors in different states are not necessarily traditional local banks, but banks that have a super powerful strategy in each state. We also launched a tutorship program for the states where we had most opportunities, and that leads to the aforementioned growth of 300 basis points in our market share. Here is the biggest challenge fintechs are posing: service. BBVA is a fully universal bank offering all products in all segments everywhere in the country. Fintechs are single product-focused in a few cities, no legacy platforms.
Well, the experience they offer is pretty good. Actually, according to NPS, we are the indisputable leader in the market with nearly 70 points of Net Promoter Score in the country, and head and shoulders above the following fintech player. This is one of the main challenges from now on, dealing with the client experience and continuing to provide the best product in all channels. We still have the challenge of NPS, but in terms of brand power, we are clear leaders in the market. When surveys are published on which bank would you prefer to open your first account, BBVA is always at the top. Many fintechs are now requesting banking licenses that will allow them access to many businesses they cannot operate on right now. Still, I would say there is much talk about fintechs coming into Mexico, but the largest fintech in Mexico is BBVA.
No fintech has more clients or is more transactional or has such a focused strategy, plus a competitive advantage, the largest physical branch network in the country. In a country that heavily relies on the use of cash, that is an enormous competitive edge. Let me show you why we are the largest fintech in Mexico. First, the pace of customer acquisition continues to grow. Last year, we brought in 4.7 million new accounts, 81% of those via digital means. In 2019, only 25% of new accounts were opened digitally. Whereas this year, you can open a new account from your smartphone in seven minutes. It is a dramatic change in the user experience. In terms of digital customers, out of those 33 million customers, how many of them interact with us through their smartphone? 27 million, with an average daily transaction from 27 million clients using their smartphone.
That is surprising growth since 2019. Digital E2E sales, the capability to distribute products on different channels, 58% of our sales are fully digital end-to-end. If we add assisted sales, because we do retargeting of a contact center, we are actually above 70% of sales that started in a digital channel and are likely to finish on an offline channel. Since 2019, after the COVID pandemic, we launched a fees mix evolution in preparation for the boom of neobanks. Our fees mix evolution, the fastest-growing part comes from the wholesale business, including SMEs. In the case of individuals, we have been constantly shrinking fees. A few weeks ago, we announced zero fees in the digital transactional world. Today, we have 24 million clients paying zero fees in the digital transactional world. Obviously, we have asset management fees and new loan fees.
This is a clear strategy that we are using to prepare to compete with neobanks. It is a high personalization strategy based on AI and the use of new channels. The new app was launched last year, and now we have 27 million personalized experiences using AI. The more a customer uses the app, the more we customize it. Let me tell you about the most typical process in terms of competing with new entrants, which is credit cards. If we stand at 2022, our market share was 30.8%. Last year, we closed with a market share of 31.4%. That is a +60 basis points, and neobanks grew by 119 basis points. They went from 3.2% to 5.1% market share, and that is when we launched a specific strategy to face these new entrants.
This is the power of the bank, not only in terms of customer acquisition, but also in granting credit cards. I already told you, we granted or issued 2.7 million new cards. Beyond launching new cards, we are also seeking to offer profitable promotions in the market. We are not competing in terms of profitability. We are following a strategy. When we identify that we are sharing a client with a neobank, we focus on that group of clients and follow up in the process of how they use their credit cards. About the processes we have been running when we see a client has another bank. Notice the drop in the use of our card when they get another card. 12 months later, we go back to the same billing level we had a year before after applying the strategy.
For instance, if we see a client's flows, if we see they are sending money to a debit card in a neobank, or if they are using another credit card, we follow up on those shared clients and we map their evolution and create specific strategies to address that. Not only is our share growing, we also have the lowest NPL portfolio in the market. Notice how it compares to neobanks. These are not necessarily the same accounts. We do not have the exact risk premiums to determine how much risk we are facing, but look at the implicit rate. We are also taking into account part of the competitive advantage, and they are relaying that to clients in terms of credit scores and distribution models and cost to income. Another important aspect, the structural advantage BBVA México has in terms of funding costs.
Can we maintain the growth of the asset and the cost levels we have in funding? That is a big question. Allow me to address that on this slide. We closed 2025 at a cost of 2.5% cost of deposits. Only one bank has a lower cost than ours. That is because they have liquidity and they are basically not lending in the market. Look at the cost fintechs are having right now, 10.8%, 10.8%, 12.4%, all of them with a reduction of the cost of funding. We are growing our cost of funding, but that is because we had relevant growth in terms of balance sheet last year, and we are still managing the deposits we are getting both from GDV administration and the transfer from clients from investment companies to the IOU system. We have a structural advantage in terms of funding. First, the size of our payroll business.
40% of payrolls are with BBVA in Mexico, but we also have a high transactionality with companies. For instance, our payroll stock come mostly from our connection to businesses and the private sector. That is pretty much guaranteed business. If we look at bank changes, we are the bank that attracts more clients from other banks on the one-on-one sphere. If we consider transactionality, our estimate for transactionality with BBVA is approximately 40%. That is not market data. It is our own approach, as you can see in the data we are showing here. The acquiring business is MXN 2.5 trillion a year. Payrolls, at 44% we hold in terms of dispersion, is MXN 2.4 trillion. Everything we get from the payment of services like taxes, utilities, cell phone, all the services we offer to our clients for their payments is MXN 6.6 trillion per year.
It more than doubles the acquiring business or [dispersión]. A large part of the country's transactionality is going through BBVA accounts, and that is what gives us zero cost flows. On the side of payrolls, I already mentioned that 44% market share in payrolls when we have only 31.8% in terms of total accounts. This means that the affluent segment of Mexico prefer to work with BBVA. Our growing pace exceeds 20% in CIB and private banking, and we are gaining share not only in total accounts but also in market share, which shows our capacity to attract new high-quality clients and keeping funding costs as low as possible. Of course, that is a competitive advantage. Let us step into the bank transformation. Beyond our business strategy, how did we reach such levels of penetration?
I would say that our growth comes from serious investment in technology, product innovation, and better distribution models. I gave you a few brush strokes of the per segment distribution strategy, SMEs, medium businesses, and a strategy focused in regions by country and by product and segment. This started about 15 years ago when we started segmenting our clients. We brought in the whole self-service project with the Ulysses Project, which completely transformed the user experience in branches. After that, we launched several projects to transform back-office processes to bring our servicing and branches towards centralized processing centers and contact centers. We changed the branch incentives. We launched digital banking in 2016 under a vertical strategy to build all the digital processes and strategy. Also in 2016, we merged both strategies, the digital strategy and the branch strategy.
That was a super relevant turning point for the bank. We did not have to, or segments did not have to compete for CapEx. A branch network had digital sales incentives just like the centralized service did, which maximized their capability to multiply digitalization. We also launched other incentives focused precisely on that merger, and based on that, we started building a merged history of excellent service. If we stand at 2011, BBVA was a top bank or a growing bank in terms of Net Promoter Score. We have been growing since then, closing the gap with traditional banks. Now we have the huge opportunity to leverage on AI because we automated most of our processes, and we have a large volume of clients that gives us a lot of leverage in the use of data.
These past 15 years have led us to the top position in NPS. We have become a super relevant player, leading to a noticeable cost-to-income improvement, and we have enhanced our risk management capabilities and our pre-approved loan rate. Can we go back to the slide? How has this digitalization process worked for the bank? Between 2018 and 2025, we sustainably grew 2% our ATMs. In 2011, when we started the transaction migration process, we had approximately 7,000 ATMs, and we have nearly doubled that amount. We have fewer branches, fewer branch offices than we did in 2018, but have the same size, the same amount of employees in the retail network, but we have grown the number of clients. In 2015, we had 15 million clients, and we more than doubled that number. Plus, we gained 10 percentage points in NPS.
Look at how transactionality shifted since 2018. In terms of the use of GloMo, app plus web, we have grown by 38% in our yearly transactionality. ATMs, transactionality remains flat, and in branches, there is a yearly reduction of 6%. The cost per unit, it is MXN 1 per transaction in a smartphone. MXN 1, not $1. That is [$ 0.01] in a smartphone, [$ 0.55] in branches. That reduces the cost of transactionality, since we have migrated most of the bank growth to other channels using our most expensive networks for higher value-added products. Once we have migrated products to the digital— 15 years ago, most credit cards were issued at a branch office, whereas now most transactions start in a digital channel, and they may finish offline, but it is no longer in a branch office.
We have transformed our offices, or evolved them towards higher value-added products like insurance. We have grown our insurance sales in branches by 20%. The value of insurance and the opportunity for growth in terms of penetration is very serious. In mortgages, we have had a sustained growth of 10%. Our share in mortgages exceeds 30%, but 20 points out of those 30 basis points come from prescriber networks. The rest, which had shares of 5%-7% as an average, has been maximized. The same thing goes for auto loans. We have a prescribers network for the auto loan business, and our own retail network are selling to the clients in our database. We are following a tight discipline, as Jaime was saying, by bringing in new data to credit scores and to undertake a more sophisticated approach to collections.
If we look at loan pre-approval models, we now have multiplied the pre-approved loans by 1.5x since 2022, 1.2x higher pre-approved loans volume, and the serious migration to digital channels for collections. We have reduced our collections headcount by 25%, and we migrated 42% of collections to digital channels while maintaining the lowest NPL ratio of our competitors. If we look at it on a product-by-product basis, we are also below the system's average. Our percentage in terms of retail is higher. This indicator of 1.6% also includes a lot more consumer credit and credit cards than in the industry. Our cost to income is 32.7%. These are local data only. Look where other banks, other incumbents are. Here we have three data points about neobanks. One, cost to income in Nubank, 70.2%, whereas in Brazil, it is 25.4%.
The gap between us and Brazil is 7 percentage points. In the case of Revolut of Mexico, their cost to income is 38%. If we see how scale economy, cost to income, and a better risk profile in the balance are translated, we get that 32.5% market share in terms of net profit in the system. We have double the net income versus our next peer, while we only have 1.7x higher loan market share and total deposits only 1.6x higher. Scale economy, better cost to income, and fewer write-offs. Where is this story we have been building taking us? I would say we are very well-positioned to use AI and data in our 27 million personalized customer experience. Blue, the voice assistant, is already a reality with over 2 million queries launched in the past couple of months.
Our target is having a huge reduction of calls to call centers and many of these queries running through Blue. We are also launching a new robot to support our account executives in SMEs, retail banking, and corporate banking. More than 5,000 bankers will take support on these new robots we are building, and we also have robots applied to collections, which will bring 20%-50% reduction in credit analysis and 80% reduction in collection costs. We have not said much about talent in Mexico, but we have been following our employer attractiveness in Mexico with three different surveys. The first of these surveys is Merco Talento. We are the second-best employer in all sectors. This is not just for the financial industry. We are number two among all companies in Mexico.
A survey to 10,000 university students called Universum shows us as the second most attractive employer for college students. The next bank holds, or next peer bank holds the 22nd place. According to the third survey, EFY, we are the third most attractive employer. Almost in time.
Yes, we will try to have enough time to answer all your questions.
Okay, let us get started. Marta, please.
First of all, open market cards. There is a strategic focus on growth, apparently, but could you give us some numbers in terms of NII expected losses and a question about macroeconomy. Mexico always offers that promise of growing to a 2% rate. What is different this time? What can you tell us about policies and other elements?
Well, I do not have the numbers off the top of my head, but I can say 22% of the new cards we issued in 2024 and 2025 come from open market. For this year, we have a huge challenge to issue 5,000 new cards per day in open market. That is in direct competition with Nubank. At the same time, we have a very cautious risk strategy. We have been following up on the crops we have had from open market and testing different strategies to compete directly with Nubank, and that is one of the big challenges for 2026. But ultimately, we are also working on credit score and maintaining new generation capabilities.
Just to add one thing, I would highlight how agile BBVA México is in terms of detecting this appetite. Eighteen months ago, two years ago, when the cost of risk went slightly up, BBVA México acted quickly by removing from the score clients that had only been in their work position for only two years. So BBVA México is very agile to test the limits of open market to make sure they remain within the bank's risk appetite.
About the second part of your question, well, BBVA México grew 2%, or sustained 2% historically. So that comes from the layout of the structure Plan México. But there is also a very powerful digitalization of the economy plan and very specifically focused on SMEs. One factor that has sustained consumer banking in the past seven years is the increase in minimum salary, which covers the entire population.
That will continue to grow for the next five years as the present administration has laid out a policy to reach a minimum standard for the formal sector acquisition capabilities, so there will be more salaries to buy more. This year, we are sticking to that 2% promise. If the infrastructure plan goes as it has been devised, maybe for next year, we can see a growth higher than this year's.
Perhaps as an extra note, certainly the growth, and we are publishing our new forecast and guidances for growth in BBVA México, also close to 2% in line with the plan. But we do notice that the growth of loans, as Lalo was saying, due to the low banking penetration in the country, there are opportunities for growth that lead to optimism beyond the macro economy environment where the scenario would limit growth to 2% or less.
Not just that, direct foreign investment as soon as the renewal of the FTA comes into force. Beyond the global debate in terms of tariffs, we had growth rates in 2025 for foreign investment around 10%. There are plenty of signals around the economy that lead us to believe that this 2% cycle could be broken. Unrelated to economy productivity issues, which is also linked to SMEs, of course.
Nacho?
Yes, two questions. One, in terms of strategy for neobanks, fintechs, et cetera, what would be the most dangerous strategy for BBVA in terms of payrolls? I mean, which factors- Which strategy factors could be more dangerous for you? Is it pricing, customer service, penetration? Then what is the worst-case scenario you can envisage for the free trade agreement with the United States? In which kind of scenario would BBVA México suffer most?
Well, about payrolls. That is clearly an aspect we have to protect in our business. We are also a universal bank. A client that has an account with us has all the services available, and highly leveraged on client experience. We have the best NPS out there, the best app out there, and our power comes from attracting clients from other banks. We would have to set up an indicator of how many accounts we lose to others and how many we get from others. The ratio would be 1: 3, and we gain about 6x what we lose to other banks. Of course, we need to fine-tune our payroll strategy, like we did with credit cards, to continue to reinforce our competitive position. We keep growing in payrolls in terms of attracting not just numbers of clients, but also accounts.
When we say we are the bank of choice for the affluent segment, we see that in private banking with sustained growth revolving around 20% in total growth. About the worst-case scenario, I cannot see a scenario of breaching the FTA. In the past 30 years, consistency has been maintained in imports and exports. Perhaps the most negative scenario would be not reaching an agreement and having to renegotiate every single year for only the following year, which would provide not a lot of certainty for many investors, and then it would be ruled out. The FTA will continue to apply and investments will continue to flow. Considering the geopolitical situation, the only way out is greater integration, I would say.
Álvaro?
Álvaro Serrano from Morgan Stanley. Two questions about the competition for deposits. In 2024, you lost a little bit of share. In 2025, can you tell us about the drivers and the change of share? If we look ahead, what would you expect for your market share and deposits in 2027, 2028, considering the present context of fintechs? You are saying that some of these new banks are getting bank licenses. In that context, what do you expect would happen to your share of deposits in the next few years? A second, more or less related question. You state that 85% of your deposits are term deposits, the best number in the market, of course. As part of those demand deposits, are you seeing any changes in the mix to more remunerated accounts because of the push from your competitors?
Well, two things happened. BBVA naturally attracts a lot of liquidity. We have always had enough resources to fund the growth in our balance sheet.
The situation in 2024 is a standardization of the whole cumulative post-pandemic liquidity. That liquidity started coming out from banks, and it started with the increase of some banks paying around 15% in the market. When liquidity started exiting the bank, not the effect of new banks, since their share is so tiny, but as an after effect of COVID, we decided to adopt a systematic approach in enterprise and institutional banking, and a super specialized attraction bucket strategy in the CIB transactional business. So we started looking for opportunities to attract resources, and then we standardized resources to fully fund the balance sheet. The idea was let us start growing deposits year-on-year, just as we are growing assets, while controlling the level of attraction of liquidity in terms of cost. You have seen the results on the slide.
Not only did we gain market share, but we also kept the total cost of deposits well under control. In client deposit attraction, our point is going to the wholesale debt market. We have enough access to the market to come out at any point. The difference lies in the cost of the deposit guarantee and the total cost of coming out in the market. The biggest business we have does not come from the growth of loans, because we are cross-selling to those clients with more cash management and more payrolls. We are re-steering the capture strategy, because there was an important drain of resources in the entire system.
Also migrating balance sheet resources to funds.
Yes, particularly in business and administration. Your second question, 85% is in personal deposits. We do not remunerate deposits on individuals or businesses except in corporate banking.
We do offer some remuneration in government because our clients with surplus liquidity migrate to investment funds, or we provide an IOU offer to bring them in from investment funds with us, to bring them with us. We are leaders in both businesses and individuals, so our clients with liquidity surplus can just invest in our investment companies and with one single click from their smartphones, and the same thing is happening for businesses. There are no important changes in the rollout after all.
Ignacio from BNP Paribas. I have a question about cost to income. In terms of efficiency for the past two to three years, it has been around 33%, well, [32.7%] this year. How much more room for growth based on income while keeping cost control? Can you do better, or is 33% the floor for efficiency?
Well, I think we are remaining around 30% cost to income. Our investment base has not gone down. Perhaps when we finish building our middle office and back office, relying on AI, we will have a very clear idea of the impact of this new technology by the end of the year, particularly in those processes I just described. Just as we did in the past 10 years, we are trying to use the most efficient clients to deal with higher- value clients. We are probably witnessing a new change in the mix, not only in the transactionality channel, but in terms of the support channels. This goes back to the investment required to support bank growth. If we keep acquiring 3 million new clients in stock, that will bring in some serious transactionality and the development of new products and measures we will have to apply.
I would say we stick around 30%.
Yes. Hello, Carlos from CaixaBank. Quickly, in one of your slides, you were showing nearly [8%] of sales coming in through digital channels. How would this compare in terms of value? What is your target in midterms to shift in sales and value?
Well, I do not have the exact numbers, but we have been migrating many of the branch products to one-click loans, going from consumer credit cards, personal loans, just available one click away from your smartphone. Not only does this make the process more efficient, but also more visible to the client. When you launch a pre-approved in a branch, the client does not see it, whereas today, they can see it on their phone. We are launching higher value products with personalized support to clients. Higher value like insurance, mortgages, some investment products.
So it's better use of channels for sales, more efficient use. Very soon, in the next few months, well, probably by 2027, we won't be selling a single credit card in a branch. Everything will migrate to digital. We also have the digital consultant or digital agent, and this saves time from our executives for high value added.
The percentage is 78% in terms of units, if you want the number. Paco.
Yes, Francisco Riquel from Alantra. About loans to companies that has grown more moderately versus retail. Out of this smaller growth, how much comes from the uncertainty in renegotiating the free trade agreement with the U.S.? Can you give us a flavor on the local demand of businesses and the pipeline you see and any potential growth for the next few years? Or do you believe that this higher weight in retail will be maintained, 55% versus 45%? Or is business the next driver for growth?
In the next few years, we will certainly see more growth in retail and SMEs just because we're bringing new people into the banking system. There are plenty of individuals and small businesses that do not have a bank account, and that will continue. On the wholesale side, the opposite happens. All businesses have a certain level of credit in the system, and there's also a relevant effect in terms of the national currency appreciation, 30%-40% of our balance sheet, depending whether it's [inaudible] or CIB, is dollar indexed. So the reappreciation of pesos brought a serious reduction in comparative terms. We're also witnessing the effect of suspended investment.
The drop in domestic private investment, as I pointed out in the presentation, shows its impact on the [inaudible]. Because the effect is these investors are global and they're investing all over the world, not only in Mexico. But in the future, I would say we'll stick close to a high single-digit growth, particularly because of the way investment plans will go, because we see greater confidence from investors to invest in Mexico. So in the total mix, retail will continue sustained growth of high single digit.
Borja?
Borja Ramírez from Citi. Two questions, if you don't mind. The first, about the competitive environment long term. What's your take? Because I see that some fintechs have been losing market share in the past few months in Mexico. So I don't know, is the fintechs business model sustainable long term?
My second question, I see that Mexican pesos are appreciating by almost 4% so far this year. This is probably positive for BBVA Group accounts. But in connection with this, if I look at the impact of oil prices, and considering that Mexico is a producer, I would guess Mexico doesn't have as much impact as other countries from the rise in oil prices. Could you tell us about that?
Well, yes. Certainly, some fintechs have stalled their growth pace. That comes from two factors. First, risk premiums. It hasn't been easy for them to go into the segment of the population that do not have a bank account. There's this idea that the fintechs are trying to circulate, which is banks don't want to lend any money. But we do. That's our business.
Many of these new banks took higher- risk premiums that they could actually control. If you add the cost of funding to that, because they came in at very high rates, the mathematics do not lie. Many of these new fintechs are re-steering their strategy. Some of them are nimble enough to change their business model, and we will see where they end up. But the competitive environment in Mexico is very tough. It is very competitive, as you have seen from the data I just presented. Perhaps about the group and the appreciation of Mexican pesos, somebody else could answer that. But there is this thing, we have seen an appreciation of Mexican pesos in the past 18 months, and that would have an impact on the export and tourism industry. In reality, Mexico is exporting more.
The export pace in Mexico has been noticeable, and the occupancy level in tourism areas, not only in terms of visitors, but average fees, has been noticeable despite the tourism offering being more expensive on account of the appreciation. It is interesting because sometimes the opposite thing happens than we expect in the macroeconomy. But that comes from this clear integration of Mexican and U.S. economies in terms of imports and exports. The last part of your question about oil prices. Mexico is a net importer of oil and gas. In the total sum, we import more than we export. But for Pemex, the balance is positive. These oil prices will help Pemex. It will be negative. It will have a negative impact on the government, but with a minor effect.
Yes, about Mexican pesos being appreciated, they are doing better than we expected. The currency already appreciated late last year. Our research department contemplates a mild depreciation during the year, but we will have to wait and see where the numbers go. Hugo.
Can you use the microphone, please?
Thank you. Three questions, if I may. First, the legal reform with the judges getting elected. Do you think that could create any sort of volatility in the macro? Second, a lot of people speculate that a lot of the FDI and the exports are re-exports from China. You had a very good chart that there does not seem to be a lot of correlation between China and Mexico imports into the U.S. But if you could give any color, if there are any stats around how much of U.S. exports are re-exports. Then third, that drag on retail fees that it has been coming down because you are putting people on free accounts and so on. When do you think that drag will end? Is it going to continue? Could be a year or two from now that stops. Thank you.
I will answer that in Spanish, if you do not mind. First of all, the judicial reform clearly had an impact on investment. Actually, the drop in investment we witnessed in 2025 comes more from the uncertainty generated by that reform than from the renegotiation of the FTA. That was a clear factor. Well, probably the renegotiation has a certain effect, but in percentage terms, it is uncertainty that affects us. Now we see that expectations have flattened out for two reasons. First of all, 95% or more of lawsuits in Mexico happen at a local administration level, and local justice in Mexico was very poor in terms of access and timing deadlines. So once you acknowledge that the system had to be improved and had an unsatisfied demand, you start realizing that local entrepreneurs gain confidence because direct foreign investment grew by 10% last year.
It was local investment that was held back. So once you understand the rules of the game are changing, there will be a repricing for certain projects in the country. If we look at foreign investors when we talk about energy projects or logistics infrastructure project, well, many of those investments will be done under foreign law or via arbitration or mediation. So there is a rearrangement of the play field and the rules of the game. Investors are trying to ascertain the real impact of this legislation reform. Also, the judges. The change of judges happened in only a few states in the country, and the effect of that will only be seen around 2027. About fees. Well, fees are a competitive advantage in our strategy.
By lowering fees in the digital world, we have brought in more clients, and that favors us in the public eye in this ongoing discussions on whether fees are fair or not. It also gives us an advantage versus new entrants in the system. At any rate, we are offsetting the reduction in prices, both in fees and volume, and you just saw the results of that. I would say as a strategy, it was a very cleanly executed strategy, and it made a lot of sense to reel in more volume for the bank.
There was something about exports and China. Are you growing in exports?
Yes. About that, clearly, we are dealing with a lot more exports. The growth driver in 2025 was the exports volume in Mexico, particularly the first half of 2025. When the tariffs were announced, Mexico's export volume grew enormously.
Along with the growth in imports, there have been tariff barriers against the China imports, and that is generating a reshuffle of supply chains within the Mexican market. You do not see the effects thereof in only a few months, but there will be a reshuffling in Mexico and probably the rest of North America.
Sofie?
Thanks. Sofie from Goldman Sachs. My first question would be, you mentioned that you have this one-click product, but how long does it take to give a mortgage loan or a consumer loan or a credit card? How long is the process? We have seen in Europe that it takes anything from two and a half minutes to 25 days. If you could comment on that. My second question would be going back to the fintechs. Are there any products that you feel that you are inferior on compared to the fintechs?
Can you repeat the question for me, Sofie?
In terms of the fintechs, are there any products where you believe BBVA's product offering is not as good as the fintechs?
Well, in terms of mortgages, I would say we have two models. One, the prescriber model. There, we're the main loan grantor to developers. Turning or funneling a mortgage from developer loans into individual might take two to three days, same day sometimes because we have all the data, which is churning mortgages. There is the non-prescriber model, which is what we do in the retail network, and the timing may change, may vary. three weeks to three months, probably. Because those mortgages, each mortgage is its own. Ultimately, secondhand housing will always be a longer process. About fintech products, that's a good question for pondering. I believe we have launched a powerful transformation in terms of digital transformation.
I believe we're very well-positioned in competing against fintechs, because a lot is being said about those, but the competitiveness of traditional banks in Mexico is also very pressing. Not only have we positioned our strategy to compete against fintechs, but also against other incumbents and peers.
Yes, maybe you were saying that in the presentation, right. The fintechs focus on service and digital features. You're also following up closely on that, right?
Not only that. I would say the main challenge is the fact that we're a universal bank. If you're a monoliner and every time you have to grant a product and offer post-sale services for a single product, it's a lot easier to focus because you have a closer connection to the client.
That's also our competitive advantage on fintechs, because you can provide all the services to your clients, particularly in a country or in a bank where the client aims to grow in practically all segments.
Britta?
Britta from Autonomous. A subtle question in English. You were just discussing kind of monoliners versus universal banks. There is a drive to give out more banking licenses to the fintechs as well, which means that they can go chase larger deposit volumes because they fall under the deposit insurance. In principle, also means that they can widen the asset side of the products, which we haven't really seen yet, is primarily focused on credit cards. How do you think it'll change the competition, especially in consumer finance on a broader level, buy now, pay later, auto finance, and other consumer loans? Is there enough growth for everyone, or are you expecting a major market share shift?
My second question would be, how are you looking at the proposed changes to the interchange fee regulation? You're an issuer and an acquirer, which can have some advantages. Do you see that as also potentially a major threat for some of these neobanks because a large share of their P&L depends on interchange fees at the moment? Can I just add to that? Sorry.
How do you see that process progressing? What is being discussed right now in the consultation? Where do you expect that to end? Because, for example, we've seen in Chile that the discussion about interchange fees has basically come to a bit of a halt because it's not led to the desired outcome.
Well, to answer your first question. While there are certain segments where we are now generating the competitive capabilities to go in of e-commerce points of buy now, pay later business, we've attempted to dip our finger in it, but getting the embedded finance agreements has not been easy, as Jaime was saying. That could be a big opportunity for the group in terms of creating products and reaching those points of sale. But we're working on a different product. For instance, in the buy now, pay later system, we're coming to debit customers offering a direct deferral of their purchases. It's not only if you have a credit card. You can also get your purchase deferred if you have a debit card. If we consider the volume of clients, this project could help us build on those capabilities. About interchange fees.
Well, capping these fees or lowering them abruptly, as was proposed at some time, is part of the dialogue we have with regulators. It's a very complex, positive dialogue, and they understood the impact a reduction of that magnitude could have on the system. We explained what happened to other countries that did exactly that. Ultimately, you inhibit investment and remove attributes and features from products that reach clients, and it's a lose-lose situation. So what's on the table right now? We're in the process of agreeing with the regulator to review all the costs in the system.
There was a methodology for cost revision that the bank regulator did not agree with, so we're reanalyzing the interchange fees system entirely to explain the regulator all the implicit costs, from the cost of funding to all the different levels, so that we can come up with a win-win proposition. Obviously, many of the monoliners that rely solely on those fees will see their future business highly complicated. If you issue credit cards and you don't have the acquiring business, you're likely to suffer a serious loss in fees. Although it will also have an impact on the interchange fee. There will be an automatic readjustment, if you will. But we're at a standoff right now, and maybe in the next few months, there will be a clearer vision on how to go about the rate reduction.
There was a natural rate reduction going on based on the ideas we've been launching from the Mexican Banking Association, and we're likely to come to an agreement in the next, I would say, six months.
Great. Thank you very much for your questions. Thank you, Lalo, for all the explanations. Thank you very much for your attendance, and we hope you have found this event worthwhile. I would like to invite you to join us in a cocktail that will be served just outside. Thank you so much.
Gracias.